Solstice
by MouseWithADinosaurTail
Summary: [A PMD: Gates to Infinity story] Five years ago, the sun went out. Elaine, a human girl transformed into a tepig, is destined to bring the sun back and save the pokemon world. That's at least what Catrin, her grouchy oshawott guide, tells her. But bringing back the sun will take more than anyone thought. After all, how can you save a world that does not want to be saved?
1. The World Is a Terrible Place

The world was a terrible place.

If any pokemon ever tried to tell Catrin that the world in its current state was somehow salvageable, somehow well-intentioned, somehow not a complete affront to the gods above, he would sneer at them. No drunken fool could convince Catrin that this world was anything more than a cesspool, a still-watered pond choked with algae and garbage at the end of a muddy stream. It was a world that desperately needed hope, salvation, a sun to light the bleak, murky sky slowly suffocating it from above. But it hardly deserved even the smallest kindness. The world deserved to rot.

Catrin raced through the bushes like a scorbunny. The scraggly branches caught on his maroon cloak and grabbed desperately at his blue fur. But with despairing thoughts racing through his head and stinging his eyes, he could hardly keep his mind on the chase. He could hear them up ahead: the stomping footsteps, snapping twigs, deep guffaws bellowing out from the trees. Each noise was further ahead than the last; he was losing ground.

He spotted a grainy shadow up ahead, and a voice sang out. "Come and get us, little church boy!"

The comment distracted him for only a second, but it was enough. A root tripped and flung him to the ground. A chorus of shrieking laughter jumped out from every direction, as if he were surrounded. "Awww, are we going too fast for you? Do you wanna take a break and sing some hymns?"

Catrin bared his teeth, his face contorting in pain and rage. He cried out as tears of anger streamed through the fur of his cheeks. "Give it back!" His claws dug into the wet earth of the forest. "Just give back what you stole!"

The laughter that responded was a slap in the face. "Bwahahaha! You'll have to catch us first!" The silhouettes vanished into the dark, and the pounding of footsteps receded into the distance.

Catrin's muscles tensed to spring ahead and give chase, but pain held him still for a moment. His blackened heart twisted. Rage pressed against his rib cage and streamed through his arms. He let out a strangled scream and slashed his claws through the bark of a nearby tree. His fingers smarted, but he screamed again and slashed at the wood and kicked the trunk as hard as he could. He barely felt his ankle jolt in pain. Who cared? Who even cared?! The world was a rotten, disastrous place! Without a sun, it deserved to bleed out and _die!_

And really, that was all Catrin expected from that night. He expected the bandits would run off with his things, split the prize in Ragged Mountain up ahead, and go their separate ways all the richer. He expected a night of more pain, more suffering, more wishing for a dawn that wasn't coming and the cold, still death of this endless night. He expected to lose.

He did not expect a weight to land on his head and knock him unconscious.

* * *

The first thing she knew was a dream.

The dream was like floating in a clear sea. Sparkling lights drifted through the soft, colorful haze, and in that moment, she felt as though her body had shrugged off its earthly bounds and become wind. She was one with the rainbow, breathing in perfect sync with the mist around her. At peace. All was calm.

The voice that came wasn't an intrusion. It felt like something not earthly, like the voice of a star. The song of a bell. It connected with her.

_"Might you be... a human?"_

She wanted to answer its question, but her spirit didn't move to. It was as if speaking would break the tranquility of this soothing, drifting place. She wasn't even sure she could answer. Was she human? She certainly didn't feel human here. She felt like the air of the universe.

Without prompt, it spoke to her again. _"If so, then please... I want you to save my world. You must..."_

The voice faded away like a sigh on the wind. And suddenly, _something _cut through the fog. She jolted like it had cut through her. The faded pastel mists snapped into a vortex of dark purple. A scream barged through the haze.

"H-H-H-HELP!"  
An image split through her head like a blunt ax. The void was so loud, dizzying, and painful that she could barely comprehend the vision. There was a munna in a red cloak, its eyes stretched wide with terror as it bolted through a tunnel of rock. A shadow was in pursuit, something hulking and monstrous that bashed its way after the pokemon. The munna came to a dead end and cowered under its hood as the shadow of the beast fell over it. From the shadow, six great wings spread wide, and it lunged.

The vision went black. The purple haze lurched away, and she was thrown from that spectral place like a passenger tossed out of a crashed car. Her body contorted and balked, like a gnarled hand had grabbed her and squeezed her into pus, and she sucked in a gulp of air for the first time. She felt different. Heavy. Something was wrong.

The second thing she knew was that she was falling.

Her brain was such a spinning mess that she could barely comprehend it. But the buffeting air, her spinning limbs, that awful roaring; she was falling. Her body broke into a feverish sweat. Her lungs heaved, but whether it be from the fall, the panic, or their own malfunction, there was no air to breathe. Tears leaked from her eyes. The ground lunged to meet her like the colossal beast of her dreams. Her body cringed. Something was still wrong!

_SMACK!_

You know the feeling of when you're in a panic, and then someone slaps you and things become clear for a second? That's what happened to her then, when she slammed into some unknown shape and slipped onto the ground. She felt wet, sloppy dirt under her back, and she twisted up her nose at the ringing in her ears. But... she was alive. That was good! And she wasn't hurt? Even better! Wait... but what the hell had just happened?

She scrambled to her feet, and the third thing she knew was her name was Elaine.

Right, Elaine. That was her name, of course it was! Had she forgotten that? She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath when she felt panic creeping into her head again. She hadn't forgotten her name, right? That wasn't just something people forget! People forget things like homework and the bus schedule and feeding their pet magikarp. Normal things! She huffed again, stamped her hooves in agitation, and- Wait... Since when did she have hooves?

"Ngh..."

Her whole body stiffened up like a scared purrloin. She'd thought she was alone, but _something _had saved her from splattering on the ground in an unflattering pile of Elaine, and if she remembered right, it had been something fuzzy. She took a mental note to be impressed at herself later for remembering such a tiny detail while quite literally falling from the sky and turned around to where the groan had come from. Her eyes were just barely open, and she couldn't see anything yet.

Elaine blinked the fuzziness out of her eyes, but it was still so dark she couldn't make a single thing. Had she gone blind?! Was it nighttime? She couldn't remember the last time she'd checked a clock, but she vaguely remembered watching Mewtube in bed with the lights off, so nighttime seemed like a safe bet. Slowly, she started to make out some shapes. Long, tall ones, like the legs of a giant galvantula standing above her. So, she wasn't blind. Nice! As her vision came back, she figured she was in a forest- definitely _very _odd since she'd been home in her apartment last she could remember. And they weren't pretty, little trees like the ones in Castelia Park. These were ancient, enormous things, the sort of tree you couldn't cut down without contracting some sort of lifelong forest curse. There were a few stars out in the murky, bruise colored sky. Weak, flickering little things. And on the ground a few feet away was an unconscious pokemon.

Oh!

Okay, it was coming together! She'd bounced off a pokemon that had graciously saved her life. Nice. It looked sort of large, like a big zangoose, and was slumped over unconscious on the forest floor. Sweating and chewing her lip, she tentatively crept over and gave the pokemon a kick. "H-hey! Are you okay?"

A groan, and the pokemon shifted. Cool, that was a good sign! She definitely didn't have the money to take this thing to a Pokemon Center. But as the pokemon twitched and shifted into an upright position, Elaine's eyes finally adjusted to the dark, and she realized it wasn't a zangoose at all, but in fact-

"A giant oshawott?!" Elaine scrambled back, eyes wide and mouth agape as she took in the bizarre spectacle before her. What in the dragon's name was this?! Oshawotts were little things! Trainers had them on their shoulders all the time! But this creature was taller than her, it must've been a good six feet! What idiot god had allowed this thing to come into the world?!

"Aaauuughhh..." And the weird got weirder. The oshawott rubbed its head, blinked its eyes, grit its teeth, and said, "What in the Sun's name... ?"

Elaine's entire body ran cold. She knew this was the part where she should scream, or take the Dragon's will into her own hands and _kill it with fire, _but she couldn't even move. And when the oshawott fixed its gaze on her and its face twisted with anger, her body flashed colder.

"Y-you!" It jumped to its feet- not without wincing- stormed up to her, and jabbed its paw at her nose. Its eyes flashed like the growlithes on the Castelia streets after you threw enough rocks at them. "Did you land on me?! I was in the middle of something! Do you have any idea what you've done?!"

Elaine tried to sputter out a word, but her brain felt like someone had dumped a bunch of purrloins in it and shaken it up. All that came out of her mouth was incomprehensible stuttering. The oshawott snarled. "Don't you have anything to say for yourself?!"

Elaine squeaked, "H-h-h-" The oshawott's big, navy blue ears turned upwards as she finally squealed out a question. "H-h- Y-you talk? Wh... ? H-how...?"

As if enraged by her stuttering, the oshawott yanked the hood of his cloak and roared. "For the SUN'S SAKE, if you were going to fall from the sky, you could have at least hit the ground instead of me and _saved me the trouble!_ Where did you even come from?!"

Suddenly feeling very, _very _afraid, Elaine brought her legs closer to her body and hunched down. She'd already been scared, but this absolutely wasn't helping. She trembled, and her lips twisted up. "I'm s-sorry. I-I-I think I'm lost... I don't... I was in Castelia, I think? I..." She looked up at the dark sky. "I fell, didn't I?"

"Yes, and I have the bump to prove it," the oshawott spat. It- he? Its voice was kinda boyish- took a step back so not to be right in her face. He was now looking at her less like a nuisance and more like a pitiable, lost kid. Though his eyes were still flashing, his snarl fell away. "I apologize. It's unbecoming of a member of the Church to behave this way. I'm just..." He started to move away. "Okay, normally, I'd be more willing to stay and assist you, but a very important parcel of mine was stolen. You've held me up long enough, Tepig!" The oshawott whirled around and started bounding into the underbrush on four legs, but he quickly skid to a halt. His ears and tail stood up straight, and he whirled around with eyes wide as saucers. "Tepig..."

"T-tepig?" Elaine asked. What was he talking about?

Oshawott approached her tentatively on all fours, his hackles raised. He stared at her like _she _was the giant, talking, church-going pokemon in a cloak. He scrunched his nose and curled his big, fluffy tail down onto his back. "I... You're a fire-type..."

Elaine stepped back. She was practically drenched in sweat. Why was it so hot? "I-I'm not any type? I mean, Steven says we should count as normal-types, but-"

Oshawott stepped up close, a little closer than Elaine appreciated, and scrutinized her like a diamond in a glass case. His eyes glittered. "I haven't seen a fire-type in years, not since... They say they're all gone."

"I'm not a fire-ty-"

He spun away from her. "B-b-but it's impossible, a fire-type shouldn't be physically able to-"

"Oshawott, PLEASE!"

He jumped and spun around at her sudden shout. Elaine didn't appreciate that his cloak hit her in the nose as he spun, but she didn't bother to complain. She stormed up to him and thrust her nose at his face. "Stop saying I'm a fire-type! I'm human, you hear? Human! So stop saying that!"

She hadn't known what she'd expected Oshawott to say. An apology, maybe? But Oshawott simply gave her a grim, confused look and murmured, "No, you aren't."

Something jolted in Elaine. She grit her teeth. "Y-yes, I am!"

"You're not! You're a tepig!" Oshawott sucked in a gasping breath and spat out a mouthful of water at their feet. Elaine jumped back and shivered. She did not get the appeal of water-types; every gosh darn attack looked like they were throwing up! But a puddle filled at their feet, and Oshawott gestured a paw towards it and crossed his arms. "Take a look if you don't believe me."

Elaine hesitated. She knew what she looked like. Yeah, she was pretty ugly, but all her life, she could look in the mirror and at least know what to expect. Brown skin, browner hair, even browner freckles. Yeah, she was fat and her collarbones weren't symmetrical (Mom always said she was imagining that but she was NOT) and her eyebrows were a jungle, but it was her face. Her body. She'd rather see a hot mess in the mirror than something that wasn't even _her. _

Elaine looked in the puddle, but Elaine didn't look back. The face in the pond was the orange, black-spotted, red-nosed face of a tepig.

Her brain cracked into eight pieces. Elaine began to shudder, and hot and cold flashes raced through her body. Her head was spinning. "H-hey!" She heard Oshawott cry, but she couldn't even answer and stumbled instead, nearly lurching to the ground. She landed in something soft, and her head cleared for a moment to see Oshawott had caught her. His eyes were wide, as if her freaking out was making _him _freak out.

"Please don't panic, Tepig."

He let her down to the ground gently, and Elaine curled in on herself. She was still shivering bad, and she felt feverish. She could feel every inch of her body and not in a good way. In a very, very bad way, like the feeling you got after getting home from the pediatrician that kept telling you to cut all the carbs out of your diet and go to the gym. The four stubby legs, the hooves, the big Dumbo ears, the snout, the curly-Q tail. She wanted to claw her own skin off, but she didn't even have nails anymore.

"You're still panicking," Oshawott muttered. Tentatively, he crouched down next to her. Elaine figured it was supposed to be a comforting gesture, but the feel of his fur against her side was like durants crawling on her skin. "I know this is strange. Trust me, meeting a pokemon who claims to be a human-"

"I _am_ a human!" she spat.

"- is one of the weirder parts of my day. But if you _are _a human, it would mean you're from another world, which..." He trailed off. His eyes widened, like an idea had struck him, and Oshawott gave her a strange, scrutinizing look. Looking cautious, he leaned over her. "Forgive me, I know this is immensely forward, but may I have permission to ask your name?"

She chewed on her lip. "M-my name's Elaine."

For a long, inescapable moment, Oshawott stared at her. His eyes grew wider and wider, like white full moons, and his lips parted. Elaine shifted away from him, unsure if she should start running or not. But then, Oshawott's face broke into a wide, lip-splitting grin. His eyes sparkled with the light of a thousand suns, and he jumped to her so suddenly that Elaine yelped. "It's you!"

"M-m-me?" Elaine crouched low to the ground and backed away.

"You! You're the Savior! Ahahahaha, YES!" Oshawott bounced away and began to spring around the clearing like an overexcited buneary. Elaine had to scramble out of his way just to avoid getting smacked into. He giggled like a maniac; more laughter was spilling out of him than Elaine had thought he could hold. Finally, he stopped and bounded back up to her.

"You! Finally, finally, FINALLY, I've been waiting so long!" He grabbed her cheeks in his paws and pulled her face up an inch from his, scrutinizing her hard. "Smaller and a lot more patches than I expected, but what's it matter! You're here!" He tossed her aside, and as Elaine bit her lip and tried hard not to get offended at the _lots of patches _comment, he started to sniffle.

"Can you please tell me what you're talking about?" Elaine asked, rubbing her cheeks with her hooves. Sadly, it didn't do much for the soreness; the hooves just seemed to make it worse. "What Savior? What do you mean?"

"You're the Savior! You've been brought here to save the world, just as the Great Prophetess foretold!" Oshawott cheered. His teary eyes widened, like he'd realized something, and he suddenly bowed and touched his nose to the ground. "Forgive me for not even introducing myself! My name is Catrin. And as the first pokemon to meet you upon your arrival in the world, I suppose I..." His eyes widened even further, and a giddy little smile tugged at his lips. "I suppose that makes me your prophesized guide?"

Elaine backed away from him, huffed, and stamped her hooves on the ground. Dragon forbid, this pokemon was so _frustrating! _"I'm not a savior and I don't need a guide! I just need to go home! Can you please help me-"

Elaine and Catrin fell silent as a faint howl drifted in the air above them. Catrin looked up, his ears pricked, eyes alert, and Elaine shrank down. "I-i-is that an arcanine?"

Catrin snarled. Elaine didn't remember ever being scared of an oshawott, but up close, those white, razor sharp teeth were _not _cute. "Mightyena. But if we can hear them, that means they're still close!" He turned to face her and adjusted his dark red hood. "Savior, I need you to come with me! Those bandits stole my parcel that I need to retrieve, but once I do, I promise I'll explain everything. Your transformation, your destiny, all of it. Can you trust me just for a short while?"

Elaine hesitated. She did not trust Catrin, whether he was lying or not. He was pushy and self-absorbed, and her skin was still crawling from that patches comment. She didn't understand what he meant by the Savior or the pokemon world. She had no idea where she even was! How far from Castelia could she have gotten in just one night? All she wanted was to get home, preferably before morning because Mom would kill her if she missed school. But if Catrin really did have answers, maybe he could help her get home. She didn't like him at all, but it was worth a shot.

"Alright. I'll come with you, and I'll help you get your stuff back. But afterwards, answers. Okay?"

Catrin grinned. "Of course! I would never break a promise to you, Savior!" He turned to look at a looming shape above. Elaine hadn't seen it in the dark, but it looked like a mountain. "The howl sounded like it came from Ragged Mountain. Once we get there, those thieves won't know what hit them!" His cloak flapped like a bird's wing as he sprang off into the underbrush. "Follow me, Savior!"

Elaine didn't want to follow him. She'd rather do a lot of other things than follow him. But it couldn't hurt, right? She took a deep breath and coughed when smoke came up out of her lungs. Things really were different now...

But she had to suck it up for now. She just had to suck it up. So, Elaine puffed out her chest and followed Catrin into the night.


	2. They Fight Like Beasts

"Here we are." Catrin came to a stop and stood up on his haunches, and Elaine joined him at the forest's edge. It was so dark she could hardly see a thing, but since pokemon had good night vision, she trusted Catrin to at least guide her through the forest without bumping into any trees. (She did bump into trees. Two, in fact, but she wasn't going to be mad about it.) Out of the woods, she could at least see a little better. There was a dirt road ahead and a bridge further in the distance. But the real thing that drew her attention was the looming mountain. In the night, it was black as a shadow, and it made Elaine's heart thump. You could see mountains far in the distance on the Castelia rooftops, but she'd never been so close to one.

"Ragged Mountain," Catrin said. "The caves are known to become mystery dungeons spontaneously, but I didn't hear any reports of it before I came to this region. It should be safe."

"A mystery what?" Elaine asked.

"I'll explain later." Elaine winced at the snap in his tone, and he looked down apologetically and lowered his ears. "Ah, I mean, er... I apologize for my tone, Savior! A mystery dungeon is-"

"It's alright, you can tell me later," Elaine said. "So, the bandits are up there?" She lifted a hoof and gestured to the mountain.

"Should be. It certainly sounded like they were here, from that howl." Catrin lowered himself onto all fours and pulled his hood lower over his forehead. His big, circular ears poked out from two slits in the hood, and Elaine's heart skipped a beat. Okay, no matter how rude this oshawott could be, that was adorable! "We need to be careful here. There's no cover at the mountain's base. They can spot us and lay an ambush."

Elaine grit her teeth and gulped. She was not in the mood to be ambushed by crazy pokemon today! Especially since she was a lot smaller than she was used to. If a pokemon could kill her easy as a human, she didn't want to imagine what they could do to a little, patchy tepig. "So, then! What do we do?"

"Stay close to me."

Catrin slunk out of the bushes like a purrloin and crept along the edge of the underbrush. Elaine followed him, though she didn't feel near as stealthy. Catrin was sleek and thin, but her new body was clunky and pudgy, and she scraped against the underbrush and snapped every twig underfoot (underhoof?). At one point, Catrin shot a glare back at her. "A little quieter, if you will?" he hissed.

"It's not exactly easy being a tepig!" Elaine huffed back.

They neared the base of the mountain, and the ground began to slope upwards. The trees fell behind them, and Elaine felt only rock and dead grass underfoot as they crept uphill. As she followed Catrin, Elaine used the height to get a better look around. The world was made of silhouettes; everything from the trees to the mountains to the river below was nothing more than a black shadow under a purplish night. The sky itself was the color of a bruise, with just a few flickering stars and the black sphere of a moon. Sadness passed through Elaine, looking at it all. Nights in Castelia City were bright and beautiful. Yeah, scientists were in a huge tizzy over light pollution, but you didn't need stars when the city lights breathed life into the night. The streetlamps and yellow windows and bright blue billboards were like spirits coming out to play. You never had to be scared of the dark. But here, there were no spirits. It felt like the sun had gone down and the world had died. No breath.

She really needed to stop letting her mind wander and freak herself out.

Elaine gulped, and her lip quivered. "H-hey, Catrin-"

"Here." Catrin's whisper cut her off. She looked up to realize they'd come to a gaping, dark hole in the mountainside. Elaine had figured the mountain was as black as black could get, but turns out it could get darker. Good. Cool. Catrin sniffed at the air, and his tail swished. "I smell them in here."

Elaine sniffed, but all she could smell was dead grass and dew. Good to know her chunky tepig body didn't come with heightened pokemon senses. Lovely. "So, what's the plan? We go in, shoot some water, and done?"

Catrin narrowed his eyes at her, like he couldn't tell if she was making fun of him or not. Elaine wasn't, but she didn't mind him thinking otherwise. "I'd prefer not to get killed, Savior. If anything, it'd be ideal if we weren't spotted. Sneak in, sneak out. But they'll probably smell us before we get that far."

"So what do you want me to do? Dress in drag and do the hula?"

Catrin blinked at her. "Is that code... ?" Elaine broke into a fit of giggles, and his face heated up as he smacked at her with his paw. "Savior, please focus! I think the best plan is if I go first and distract them. I hate to ask this of you, but can you grab my parcel while I have their attention?"

Elaine's eyes widened. "Wh- Dude, I dunno! I'm not used to this body yet, a-and they've got a dog in there, a-and..."

"Savior, please, I need you to help me. If I don't get that parcel back..." Catrin's voice trailed off. He curled his claws in and grimaced.

Elaine wanted to keep arguing, but the look on Catrin's face... Just how important was this parcel? She could feel an iron ball of anxiety sitting in her chest, but she swallowed it. "Fine, fine. I'll follow your lead, okay?"

Catrin's eyes sparkled with gratitude. "Thank you so much, Savior. You really are as selfless as the Great Prophetess foretold!" Elaine shifted her weight, not really sure what to make of that, but Catrin didn't notice her discomfort. "We'll need to disguise your scent. So, here."

He grabbed his cloak with his paws and, after a moment of hesitation, pulled the hood over his head and dropped it on Elaine's back. It landed with a _fwump _and fell over her eyes. She had to buck her head just to get the hood out of her face. "You're giving me your cloak? But, I don't wanna get it dirty!"

"Keeping you safe is more important, Savior," he said, though his voice wasn't very convincing. He stared at after his cloak like he'd given Elaine his baby to hold. "Just, be careful with it, okay? I can't get another one."

With a hoof, Elaine nosed her way into the hood. Her dumbo ears barely fit in it, but at least it'd stay. "I will. I promise."

"Thank you, Savior. Now, follow me. My parcel is the brown cloth bag; you'll know it when you see it." On all fours, Catrin slunk into the cave, and Elaine followed.

The caverns of Ragged Mountain were as pitch black as the world outside. The rock was slick underfoot, and Elaine could feel drip drops plunking her back through the cloak. It was heavy over her body, like the lead blankets the doctors put over you during X-rays, but the material just felt like thick, velvety cloth. Being in the cave was like journeying through the belly of a wailord. If she squinted hard at the gray ceiling, the cracks and curves in the rock looked like a giant rib cage.

"Not a mystery dungeon. Good," Catrin whispered. They padded a few more feet, and then he stopped and lifted his tail. "Up ahead. Do you hear?"

Elaine, up to this point, hadn't heard anything over the sloshing of their footsteps through the puddles. But now, she shifted her ears (she could move her ears now. She wasn't sure whether she liked that or despised it) and listened. She heard it up ahead, just barely: the faint sound of voices.

Catrin glanced at her and gestured forward with a nod, and they continued on.

Growing closer, there were three distinct voices echoing off the rock. One deep and gruff, one high and shrieking, one nasally and whining. A flickering orange light appeared up ahead, the first light Elaine had seen since coming to this world, and she breathed it in like a fresh breath of ocean air. They came to a bend in the tunnel. Elaine and Catrin ducked behind a stalactite and, as quietly as possible, peered out into the clearing.

Three pokemon were huddled close together in a circle of stalactites. Elaine spotted a golbat with a missing fang and a scar over its cheek, a misdreavus in some sort of black cloak (how was it wearing a cloak, it was a ghost-type?), and... Elaine's heart jerked when she spotted the mightyena. Its muzzle was mangled with faded scars and bare of fur, and one of its fangs had been replaced with a wiggly, gray rock. She started to sweat, but Catrin brushed her gently with his tail and gestured out into the clearing with a nod. And Elaine spotted it. The golbat was perched on a brown cloth bag. The parcel!

Elaine took a few deep breaths. It'd be fine, it was just a dog! Just a dog. Catrin nodded to her, and she gave a shaky nod back. Taking a deep breath, he sprang out into the open. "Hey, you three!"

The bandits looked up in surprise, and then their lips curled into devious grins. "Well, well, if it isn't the little church boy!" cooed Misdreavus.

"Took ya long enough! Nyeeheehee!" Golbat squawked.

Elaine could see Catrin was trembling, just slightly, but he grit his teeth and held his ground. He stalked forward on all fours. The mightyena grabbed hold of the parcel with its claws and slid it further back into the cave, and the three bandits stalked forward to meet Catrin. "So, decided to come, little church boy? I thought you'd at least have the sense to know when you'd been beaten. I was gonna let you go without no blood, but if the rattata walks itself into the ninetales's mouth, who am I to refuse?" Its voice was deep as the rock and tunneled through Elaine's chest.

Catrin stalked around the trio of bandits in a circle, and they turned to keep him in sight. It just looked like drama to Elaine at first, but then she realized. He was turning them away from her! She took another deep breath, and once they were turned away enough, she snuck along the stone wall of the cave towards the bag.

"You thieves should know that stealing from a pokemon of the Church is a violation of the Third Verse of the Solar Texts. Such a crime can b-bring... bring the Sun's wrath unto you." His words started as a confident growl, but his voice wavered halfway through.

When the mightyena barked a guffaw, Elaine nearly leaped out of her skin, but she continued to sneak. "BWAHAHAHA! The sun's wrath? What bloody sun is going to touch us, you big-nosed fool?"

Catrin grimaced. His eyes, strong as iron just a few seconds ago, now looked weak and vulnerable. "Wh-when it returns-"

"Idiot!" The mightyena swiped its claws so fast that all Elaine saw was a blur, and Catrin was on the ground in a second. He cried out, and his body tightened as he clutched his cheek. Elaine's heart nearly leapt right up her throat. Her friends had gotten into fights before, but never her, her Mom would kill her if she ever got suspended. Should she intervene? Stick to the plan? Oh Dragon, what should she do?!

But Catrin swished his tail, pointing her on, and she knew she had to keep going. She was so close now, just a few feet away. Elaine crept on as the bandits stalked towards Catrin. "You should never have come to this neck of the woods, church boy." The mightyena's growl rolled across the floor like thunder. "We don't need your kind here. Trying to leech the last fruit in the land for the sake of something that no longer exists. Fueling false hope into a dying people with promises of a prophecy and a savior!" Elaine looked up at that, but when the mightyena suddenly barked, she jumped as the whole cavern vibrated. "YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO EVEN COME AFTER US! YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE THE FUR ON YOUR BACK!"

Elaine's whole body was shaking, but she tiptoed the last couple of feet and reached the parcel. She grabbed it in her teeth (after trying to grab it with her hooves, which obviously didn't work) and glanced over at Catrin. Across the room, he rolled onto his back and sat up. Elaine's breath hitched at the sight of his bloodied cheek fur, but his teeth were bared, and his eyes narrowed in blazing hatred. "The Church is no evil. Pokemon like you are everything that's wrong with this damned world! Savior, NOW!"

Elaine jumped out of her skin. What?! What did he want her to do?! But within a second, she got her answer. Catrin's chest heaved, and a blast of water erupted from his mouth and sniped the golbat out of the air. The torch in his foot extinguished in an instant, and blackness engulfed the cave like a leaping fog. The bandits cried out in surprise, and Catrin shouted, "This way, Savior!" from ahead. She could hear pounding footsteps, and she had no idea what was happening in the dark, but Elaine broke into a run. The parcel flying out behind her, she dodged around the spinning shapes of pokemon and followed Catrin back through the tunnel.

Elaine and Catrin's feet thundered against the slick rock. Right away, she heard yelling and baying behind them. The tunnel was pitch black, but their pursuers' thundering pawsteps and wing flaps were a deafening roar in Elaine's ears. Every step nearly sent her spinning to the floor, and keeping her hooves straight on the wet rock was near impossible. But finally, light (in a relative sense) appeared up ahead, and Elaine and Catrin burst from the mountain.

"GET BACK HERE, YOU SNOT-NOSED PUNKS!" The mightyena's booming bay erupted from the cave mouth.

Elaine's heart clenched at the roar, but Catrin shouted, "Keep running!" and she managed to sprint after him down the mountainside. They dodged through outcrops of rock and scraggly mountain shrubs. Catrin wove through as elegantly as a basculin through water. Elaine managed to bump her nose on every branch.

"We need to get across the river! If we can get to Post Town-"

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" The thunderous roar split the sky above, and Elaine glanced back to see the mightyena and its goons erupting from the cave and charging down the mountain after them. Golbat's fangs were bared, and Misdreavus's eyes glowed bright red in the night. Catrin shot back a glare and snarled in frustration. As soon as he and Elaine jumped down to flat ground, she followed him along the dirt road towards the river. They moved to cross the bridge, but-

"Stop!" Catrin shouted just in time for Elaine to grind her hooves into the dirt and skid to a halt before she went flying into the water. The remains of a wooden bridge were still intact along each bank, but the structure had collapsed into the river. The old wooden planks were water-logged flotsam jutting up from the frothing white. They were trapped.

Catrin's eyes blazed, and his fangs ground against each other. He stared at the river, his muscles pulsing, but with a glance at Elaine, he growled, "Dammit!" and spun around to face their attackers.

Elaine wasn't particularly bright, but she didn't have to be valedictorian to put it together. "Just swim across and go! I'll figure something else out!"

"What are you, nuts!? I can't abandon the Savior!" Catrin stood up on his haunches, grabbed the shell off his chest, and brandished it like a knife. "Just get behind me!" And Elaine, against her better conscience, did exactly that.

The mightyena and its goons were coming fast. Within seconds, they were down the mountain and pounding down the dirt road. "I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT LITTLE STUNT!" The mightyena's roar shook the ground beneath them.

"Come and GET SOME!" Catrin roared back. His voice wasn't near as loud and higher pitched, but there was a deep anger in it that made it boom across the clearing. The mightyena lunged through the air, and shell flashing in the faint starlight, Catrin sprang.

They met in mid air, and the fight exploded. Fur and specks of blood rained everywhere as Catrin and the mightyena ripped and tore at each other. Even Golbat and Misdreavus stepped back to give berth to the flying claws. Elaine's chest tightened with terror. This didn't have one shred of the elegance seen in a normal pokemon battle. In her world, pokemon fought along their trainers to show off their prowess, wow the crowd with awesome moves, put on beautiful displays of battle. But this wasn't battle, it was violence. All the pomp and prettiness went out the window as these pokemon fought for the sole purpose of ripping each other apart.

They rolled across the dirt road, mightyena clawing and biting, Catrin hacking away with his claws and shell. His chest heaved as he launched a water gun that knocked the mightyena off its feet, and Catrin leapt and hacked at the mightyena's belly with the sharpened blade of his shell. The mightyena squealed and smacked Catrin aside with a heavy paw. The oshawott rolled through the dirt for only a second before jumping back to his feet and throwing himself at the mightyena's face. Catrin was nothing like the cute little oshawotts dancing their ways through battles back home. He was absolutely feral! He hissed and spat like an enraged animal, relentless in his attacks. He was little but fought with the force of a hurricane!

But as he clawed for the mightyena's eyes, the hound's entire body heaved in rage, and a bellow erupted from its throat. "Goddammit, _ENOUGH!_" Catrin cried out as the mightyena body-slammed him to the ground and pinned him down with two heavy paws. Catrin's shell skipped across the ground like a stone on a pond and fell into the brown grass on the other side of the road. Catrin hissed and tried to wriggle out, but the mightyena pushed him into the ground and roared like a dragon. "YOU'RE DEAD FOR THIS!"

"Catrin!" Elaine cried. The mightyena ignored her, but Golbat and Misdreavus spun around like they'd just remembered she existed. Apparently, they'd been as entranced by the fight as she'd been. Elaine knew she had to help Catrin, she had to do something! But the goons apparently knew what she was up to, for they circled in on her, eyes flashing.

"You ain't goin' anywhere, sweet cheeks," Golbat trilled.

"Should've known not to mess with us!"

Elaine took a hasty step back, and a spike of anxiety shot through her heart when her hoof nearly slipped against the rocky edge of the river. "L-l-look! Can't we all just get along? We don't have to-" Another cry of pain from Catrin cut her voice short, and she grit her teeth. She didn't have time for this, she had to move!

Shouting "GRAAAAAAAAH," Elaine barreled forward. She slammed through the goons, headbutting Golbat out of the sky when he tried to block her, and charged the mightyena. Blood racing and heart pulsing, she leapt. _SLAM!_ A snap of pain shot through her neck as she connected with the mightyena's flank. It yelped in surprise as the two of them bowled over onto the dirt.

Within seconds, Catrin was on his feet. Elaine gasped at the sight of him! His fur was soaked in blood, and he was badly scratched up on his shoulders and back, but he didn't even seem to feel it. His whole body heaved with rage, and the cute, fluffy oshawott face twisted into something mean and hungry for blood. Elaine felt his fury with all the force of a lightning storm: massive and oppressive and white hot, ready to lash out, attack, and destroy. The mightyena scrambled to its feet and crouched into an attack stance, fangs bared. Golbat and Misdreavus inched forward, and Elaine found herself frozen. The air crackled with tension. The pokemon stared each other down, eyes raging, claws flashing, all ready to spring!

"That's quite enough now!"

Just like that, the tension dropped out of the sky like a weight. All the pokemon swiveled around to see some sort of slimy water pokemon- a quagsire? That was a quagsire, right?- emerging from the river. It was a foot taller than the mightyena with a good amount of pudge and muscle packed under slippery gray skin. Its eyes were small and hard as rocks.

"This road is the property of Post Town and its adjacent properties." Quagsire shambled into the middle of the ring on four legs and then stood up on its webbed hind feet. It slapped the ground with its tail and narrowed its eyes further. "It's ill-behaved of you all to be fighting like beasts so close to a town. Just who do you think you are?"

Elaine was stunned. All her logic told her that this quagsire was an idiot, stepping into the middle of a fight between two pokemon that could kill it easy. But this quagsire carried itself with all the grace and power of a reshiram. Catrin and the mightyena could turn on him, but Quagsire's demeanor denied the possibility. The other pokemon seemed to feel the same. The twisted lines of rage in Catrin's face dropped away, leaving him looking surprised and kinda awkward. The mightyena and its goons just looked confused. It didn't matter whether or not they could beat him; no one would try.

"Just who do you think _you_ are, old man?" The mightyena's teeth were bared, but all the thunder was gone from its voice. Its eyes narrowed, like it was trying to figure out whether it was being pranked.

"I'm the groundskeeper of these parts. Or at least I like to think I am," Quagsire shrugged. "Now, do you have business in Post Town, young mon?"

The mightyena was silent.

"No? I should hope there's not a reason for that. It's unbecoming of a young man such as yourself to have a poor reputation precede him." The mightyena and its goons were all silent, an even mixture of confused, afraid, and confused as to why they were afraid. Quagsire waited a beat, then slapped his tail on the ground. "Off with you, then! Get on!"

For a moment, the mightyena and the goons were frozen in absolute shock. The mightyena looked like it was debating whether to pounce the newcomer, or if Quagsire had some hidden card up his sleeve. But then Misdreavus squeaked, "This isn't worth it. Let's just go," and the three bandits ran off and dove into the dark woods.

Quagsire huffed and brushed off his front flippers. "Honestly. What poor company." He then looked at Catrin, and a frown tugged at his lips. "And who are you two, then? More n'er-do-wells I should be chasing off, hmm?"

"A-actually!" Catrin approached Quagsire on his hind legs, wincing just a bit with each step. "I believe we may have spoken before. I sent a letter to the groundskeeper of Post Town about the available land? I'm with the Church of the Sun."

Quagsire's eyes widened, and his face relaxed as something seemed to click. "Ah! Yes, Oshawott, I recall your letter quite well. You came from Noe Town, hmm?"

"That's correct."

"Very well, very well, I won't chase you off. Though I must say, hmm, your first impression pales in comparison to that of the well-kept church member I spoke to in letter. You look no different from those ruffians I chased off, all bloodied and battered." Catrin's only response was to blush and turn his face away. Quagsire then turned to Elaine, and she near jumped in surprise. With all the commotion, she'd felt invisible. "And are you another member of the Church, hmm, Tepig?"

Elaine tried to answer, but her words all tripped over each other. "A-ah, um-"

"She's with me!" Catrin interrupted. "We ran into each other in the woods. I'm assisting her."

Quagsire stared at Elaine hard for a good moment, making her squirm, but then he turned away. "Hmm, very well. Come with me, then. We'll need to get you patched up and cleaned, Oshawott, and then we can discuss business. Come along then, I'll help you across the river, Tepig. Welcome to Post Town!"

Quagsire ambled towards the river. With a fleeting glance at Elaine, Catrin grabbed his shell out of the grass, stuck it back to his chest, and walked after the groundskeeper. For a second, Elaine hesitated. Her legs were still shaking from that fight. Images of the mightyena and Catrin's face, bloodied and twisted with anger, kept flashing through her head. She glanced up at the sky, still black as a void. Wasn't it gonna be morning soon? But with a sigh, she grabbed the parcel off the ground in her teeth and followed Catrin and Quagsire towards the unknown.


	3. Welcome to Post Town

"Come along, this way, this way. My house is just over here."

Quagsire led Elaine and Catrin along a dirt road that wound its way north from Ragged Mountain. They'd been walking for about half an hour, and along the way, Elaine tried to take in more of the scenery (or at least as much as she could see from under Catrin's hood). The silhouettes of rolling hills stretched out as far as the eye can see, spotted with leafless, gnarled trees and the frames of bare evergreens. In the dark, it was hard to make much else out, but Elaine spotted ponds and brooks here and there, sandy-colored boulders jutting from the ground like hills, and far in the distance up ahead were the black silhouettes of mountains. Everything looked a grim dark gray in the night, and though she had no reason to suspect anything was wrong, Elaine couldn't help but feel like the land felt sickly. The atmosphere was so strange in this world, and every cell in her body ached to go home. But she was getting the feeling more and more that that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

They came to a crossroads, and Quagsire gestured to the western path with his flipper. "That way's Post Town. I'll let Swanna know you've arrived tomorrow. Follow me. My home is over here." He ambled down the eastern path, and Elaine and Catrin followed.

Elaine heard a soft hiss and looked up at Catrin. He was grimacing and digging his claws into his shoulder, and his whole body was tense like a wound-up spring. From the look of him, blood-soaked and sliced up on his shoulders and down his back, Elaine could imagine he was in a great deal of pain. She cleared her throat softly, and he didn't look at her, but his pricked ears told her he was probably listening. "You can lean on me if you're having trouble."

Catrin looked at her in surprise. After a brief moment of hesitation, he put an arm around her and rested some of his weight on her back. Elaine didn't like having the coppery smell of blood right up to her nose (snout?), but she was glad she could help.

They came towards a rocky area, where the land was peppered with giant, dull red boulders jutting up from the earth, and the ground underfoot was tough and rocky. The road wound through the massive rocks, and they came to a clearing. "Here we are," Quagsire announced. Elaine could see that the place was lived-in. A small house built out of a hollowed boulder sat underneath the scraggly wooden crown of a dead tree. There was a rocky pond choked with algae and an empty garden of dry soil, and the firelight from a torch bounced red light onto the surrounding boulders.

"I like your home!" Elaine said.

Quagsire's lips turned up in a smile. "Why, thank you! I've lived in this little place for decades now. It's nice and quiet here, hmm. I prefer it over the town." He led them over to the house and ducked inside while Catrin and Elaine waited outside. Elaine wondered if they should go in, but Catrin wasn't moving to, so she figured maybe there was some pokemon custom against going into other people's homes uninvited. Catrin shrugged himself off Elaine and plopped down onto the ground with a shaky exhale, and Elaine sat down at his side. She gave him a worried look, but he scrunched up his nose and turned away with a huff. So he only liked being worried over so long as he got to lean on someone, huh? Elaine shook her head.

Quagsire came back out with a package of what was probably medical supplies in one flipper and a water skin in the other. (She knew what those were from watching _Thrones of Iron_.) He sat down in front of Catrin, pulled a rag out of the package, and dabbed water on it from the skin. "We'll get you cleaned up first before we worry about bandaging."

"I-I could clean myself," Catrin stuttered. He was blushing like a kid who needed bandaging after falling out of a tree.

"When oshawotts can turn their heads all the way around, maybe. You'll never get it all out, and Swanna won't want you in her town smelling of blood. Turn around now." Quagsire's tone brokered no argument. With a glare, Catrin spun around and slumped back down, and Quagsire dabbed at his back with the rag.

Immediately, Catrin hissed in pain and lurched away from him. "Now, don't be jumping all over the place, Oshawott! Sit back down and behave yourself. You're a Church member, aren't you?"

Catrin snarled, but as if he'd realized himself, his face dropped, and he plopped himself back down. "S-sorry." He winced as Quagsire started to dab the blood out of his fur again, but he grit his teeth and stayed in place. "I'm sorry for making such a foul first impression. Fighting like a bandit... It's not how a Church member should behave."

"I don't judge you, Oshawott. I assume you had your reasons," Quagsire shrugged. "We all get into a tussle or two out in the country. You ought to get used to it. I'm at least glad to know you can hold your own."

Elaine saw Catrin relax, but he still didn't look exactly happy. He kneaded his front claws against the rocky ground. Quagsire then spoke again, and Elaine looked up in surprise as he addressed her.

"And you're an awful small little thing," Quagsire said. His eyes were like two small, black river stones, but there was incredible intelligence behind them. "A tepig, hmm? Haven't seen a fire-type in near five years, hmm, hmm."

Elaine was quiet, not really sure what to say. Catrin's ears perked up, and he glanced back to look at Quagsire. "She's no pokemon, Quagsire, she's human. I have reason to believe she's the Savior my Church prophesized would come."

"Savior, hmmm?" Quagsire looked down at her with great interest glittering in his eyes, and Elaine suddenly felt like Catrin had kicked her out into the spotlight. Her skin crawled, and she swallowed and looked away from them. Goddammit. She didn't know why she was here or what it all meant or what the "Savior" was even supposed to do. Did Catrin really have to out her like that?

As if he noticed her discomfort, Quagsire turned away from her. "Perhaps you should let Tepig speak for herself, Oshawott."

"I'm her pokemon guide. It's literally my job to speak for her... along with other things," Catri muttered.

Elaine scrunched up her nose in frustration. If he wasn't hurt, she would've had a right mind to punt him in the nose. "I _can _speak for myself, thank you!" Catrin shot her an irritated look in return.

"Yes, yes, don't fight at the table, you two," Quagsire tutted. Catrin turned away from her, and Elaine ground her teeth and looked away as well. "So, you're a human, then. I haven't met one in a long time, not since I was a child. Welcome to our world, Tepig. I'm sorry you had to be brought here under these circumstances."

Elaine's ears pricked, and she looked up at Quagsire in surprise. Something about what he said had really stirred her. The apology, maybe? She felt pretty warmed. "O-oh, it's okay. I'd just like to get back home as soon as possible. I only just got here, I don't really know what this Savior business is about or anything."

"You haven't explained anything to her, Oshawott? Not very polite of you, hmm." Quagsire said in a playful, scolding tone.

Catrin spun around, his face flustered and offended. "I-it's not like I wasn't going to! I was busy! My things were stolen!" Quagsire and Elaine both giggled, and Catrin gave a little growl and turned away in frustration.

Quagsire sighed and shook his head. "Well, I'll let Oshawott handle explaining everything to you, Tepig. A pokemon of the Church would be able to handle it best."

They fell quiet after that. Quagsire finished cleaning the blood out of Catrin's fur and bandaged him up as best as he could with cloth bandages. "There you go. You look like a proper Church pokemon again, hmm."

"Thank you for your help," Catrin said, staring at the ground and blushing. Elaine couldn't see him actually blush with all the fur in the way, but she could feel his face heat up from where she was lying next to him. Catrin got to his feet and brushed himself off. "Now, I assume you'll want to get straight to business?"

Business? What was this about? Elaine then remembered that Quagsire had been expecting Catrin, but he looked as surprised as she felt. "Hmm, this late at night? You young folk are always in such a rush. I thought you'd want to rest before passing money around."

"I'd just like to get the deed as soon as possible. For the Church." Catrin scratched at his ear awkwardly, and then he dragged the parcel over to him with his foot and picked it up in his front paws. "The Church has met your asking price, and plus some."

Quagsire simply shook his head and extended a flipper. "Allow me to count it, then."

Catrin narrowed his eyes at Quagsire, and he pulled the parcel back to his chest. "I can do it."

Quagsire shrugged. "Very well, if you don't trust me. Go on."

Elaine frowned. That was pretty rude, wasn't it? But she supposed she understood, considering how beaten up Catrin had gotten trying to get that money back. Catrin backed a few feet away from Quagsire, and then turned the parcel over and dumped its contents out on the ground. Gold and silver coins spilled from the bag's mouth like a waterfall and fell into a lumpy pile on the rocky ground. Catrin started to count out the money, out loud so Quagsire could hear, and within several minutes, he counted out:

"Seven hundred pieces." A smug grin tugged at his lips, and Catrin swished his tail and pushed the money back into the bag. "Sufficient?"

"Quite. Thank you very much, Oshawott. I'll get your deed." Quagsire waddled into the house and came back out before Elaine had a chance to ask what was going on. In his flippers was a scroll, and he handed it to Catrin with a smile. "Here you are! All the land is now yours, from the pond all the way to the old crowned tree to the north."

Grinning victoriously, Catrin took the scroll and tucked it under his arm, and he and Quagsire shook hands (or, shook paws and flippers). "Not my land, Quagsire. The Church of the Sun's!" He bounded across the clearing, leaping over the pond and turning back. "Savior, come along if you will! We should find somewhere to sleep."

Elaine pouted. "Aww, what? We can't sleep here?"

"We shouldn't impose on Quagsire," Catrin said. Elaine glanced at Quagsire, hoping he'd invite them to stay the night, but his river stone eyes were neutral, and he said nothing. Didn't seem like he was going to extend the invitation. Elaine frowned, but she knew Catrin was right, they shouldn't impose. He'd done enough for them. She got to her feet and padded after Catrin, the maroon cloak dragging across the rock.

"Thank you, Quagsire!"

He raised a flipper. "It's no trouble to help my new neighbors, hmm. Come to me if I can be of any more help." He got up to go into his house, and Elaine and Catrin started to pad off. But just as Elaine was about to follow Catrin around the boulder, Quagsire called out. "Oh, and Tepig?"

She glanced back, and he smiled sadly at her. "Welcome to our world, Savior." With that, he waddled into the house.

A feeling of confusion stirring inside her, Elaine followed Catrin away from the firelight of Quagsire's clearing and out into the dark night. Catrin led the way on all fours, winding through the maze of dry, red rock. His eyes were wide and wet as he took in the scenery. He looked almost awestruck, and his tail swished behind him like a purrloin's.

"So you own this land now, huh? Still getting used to it?" Elaine asked.

Catrin glanced back at her, blinking, and then he glanced down at the deed he'd tucked under his shell. "I suppose… Though it isn't really my land. I'm here to run it for the Church. I'm… proud to do that duty, I guess." He stopped and turned halfway to her. "Could I have my cloak back, please?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! Of course." Elaine slid it off and nosed it over to him, and he stood up on his haunches and put it back on. Without the warm cloak, the chilled night air slipped over her back like a fish. She shuddered. It must've been winter, with how cold it was! Catrin slipped his head through the hood. His ears popped out of the slits like two digletts, and his eyes closed as he nestled himself into the hood. Without another word, he padded on.

"Is that like your blanket?" Elaine asked as she padded after him. When he didn't respond, she continued, "I used to have a blanket when I was little! Like a security blanket. It was pink and it had these brown polkadots. But um, I gave it to my little sister when she was born. I didn't want her to be scared of the dark!"

Catrin gave her a look of confusion. "You have a sister?"

"I have two! And one brother. And a sibling. They're nonbi," Elaine announced proudly. She broke into a trot and padded up to skip alongside Catrin. "I'm the oldest."

Catrin just stared at her, and suddenly feeling like she'd done something wrong, Elaine slowed her gait a bit to fall behind him. "What's that look for?"

It seemed to hit him that he was being rude, and he pawed at his ear and blushed. "S-sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. Just feels strange to me that you would have siblings. You're human."

Elaine gave him a strange look and frowned. "And that means I can't have family?"

"Yes. Er, no? I don't know. It's my first time meeting a human!" Catrin paused. As he blushed again, a smile tugged at his lips, and he looked at her warmly. "I forget if I said it before, but… It's just really good to finally meet you, Savior. I'm glad you're here."

Elaine turned away from him. She felt like she should have been warmed to hear that, and some part of her was. But it still felt strange. It still felt wrong to be here. She could suddenly feel the skin all over her whole body. "I'm still not exactly sure what this Savior stuff all means…"

Catrin's eyes brightened, and he flicked his tail up. "Yes, yes! I'll give you all the information you need so we can fulfill your destiny as swiftly as possible!" With an excited grin, he bounded a few steps ahead. "Ah, here looks like a good place to sleep."

Elaine trotted over to see what he'd found. It was a divot in the base of one of the rock formations. It was shallow, the rock was icy to the touch, and it did not look NEARLY as comfy as her bed back home. But Catrin was already squeezing his way inside, so swallowing her complaints, she followed him in. The touch of the icy rock when she laid down sent a wave of shivers through her skin. "P-p-p-pretty c-cold, isn't it?"

Catrin batted at his ear in embarrassment. "Yeah. Apologies, Savior, I would've at least tried to get something together ahead of time if I knew you'd be here. Tomorrow, we'll go into town and see about getting a house built. But for now, I hope you can make do."

"I'll be alright. I can be tough!" Elaine grinned wide, and Catrin gave a small smile in return, looking comforted. "I just hope morning comes soon. Must be pretty late now, we've been wandering around for so long! I can't wait to see this place in daylight, it must be really pretty."

She caught Catrin staring at her wide eyed. When she met his gaze, he dropped his eyes and pawed at the ground. He looked like she'd brought up a dead family member. Unease suddenly crept into Elaine's heart like creeping rime, and she glanced out at the hazy, dark sky.

Finally, Catrin broke the silence and spoke in a low, grim voice. "For now, your hopes are in vain, Savior. Morning never comes."

Elaine blinked at him. Though she'd picked up a while ago that something strange was afoot in this world, that was definitely not what she'd expected. "Come again?"

"Morning. There's no such thing. It never comes." Catrin lifted his brown nose to the sky with a look of deep, despairing pain. "The sun is gone."

The only way Elaine could describe her thoughts in response to that was a mass of _?. _She felt like she must have misheard, or she'd just bonked her head last night and this was her resulting coma dream. Trying her best to wrap her tongue around some words, she spluttered, "Wh-wh-... But... What do you mean the sun is gone? The sun can't just quit its job!"

Glaring in annoyance, Catrin gestured up to the sky with a jerk of his paw. "Well, do you see a sun up there?"

"Nighttime is a thing! Nighttime is a thing that exists, and it is valid!"

Catrin bared his teeth, obviously getting agitated, and Elaine put her hooves up. "Okay, okay, okay. I'm just confused. The sun is a big ball of gas, like, eight million miles away in space, right? So how did this even happen?"

Catrin blinked at her. "I'm not really sure what oddities are going on in your world, but like everything else in this world, the sun is a creature of life. It breathes. It thinks. And its spirit used to bathe the world with light and warmth, all hours of the day. It was magical, seeing it fly through the sky like it had wings." His eyes glistened with wonder, lost in a better yesterday, a reminiscent smile on his face. And then, that smile faded to gray. "But one day, it disappeared. Just gone, out of the sky. This world has been locked in everlasting night ever since."

Elaine still didn't understand. This world's sun was a spirit that could just disappear? Then what the heck was the planet orbiting around? Did this world just not abide to the natural laws of physics? She and Steven used to go to the movie theater and laugh at the on-screen fantasy worlds that weren't smart enough to keep ahead of two high school students with a bare minimum knowledge of the physical sciences, but apparently, AP Physics had no power in this poke-domain.

She sighed. This was just gonna be a "roll with it" sorta scenario. "Okay, I'm following. Sun's gone, everlasting night. Soooooo, I'm supposed to do something about it?"

Catrin grinned, seemingly relieved that they were getting somewhere. He started to tap the ground with his paws like an excited lillipup. "Yes! You're the most important part of all this! I'm a member of the Church of the Sun, the greatest body of pokemon on the Mist Continent. When the sun went dark, our Great Prophetess foresaw your coming. She said that when the night has stretched five years, and pokemon society nears its dying breath, a Savior from another world with a tail of light will ascend from above. And with a pokemon guide to help her, she will become the new sun."

Elaine blinked. "Is that a metaphor?"

He shrugged. "I think? The important thing is you're here to bring back the sun! The world can finally be good again thanks to you!" Catrin's eyes glistened with so much overwhelming joy that Elaine felt the force of it from across the burrow. He inched closer to her and bowed again, touching his nose to the ground and looking up at her with shining eyes. "Really, for coming to a world like this... Thank you so much, Savior."

Elaine didn't respond right away. A twist of emotions knotted inside her. The part of her that hungered validation was already gorging on this, but the idea of it all... She tucked her legs closer to herself, stiffening up but trying to make sure she didn't look too uncomfortable. "I-I know you and the people here are really struggling, and it's not like I don't wanna help, but... D-does that prophecy say anything about, um, going home?" She gave a nervous but hopeful smile.

Catrin blinked, like he hadn't even considered it, and that sent a spike of anxiety through Elaine's heart. He put a paw on his chin in deep thought. "Well, from the stories I've heard in the Church, humans who come to this world to help with our crises are sent back home afterwards. I don't quite understand it, but it has something to do with the universal balance needing to be restored. I think it's safe to assume you'll be able to go home once the world is saved."

Catrin looked at her expectantly like she would be relieved. It was at least somewhat comforting to know that humans got sent back home enough to have built a reputation for it. (Though she was sketched out by the idea of there having been more humans before her. Did pokemon really need humans so much that they had to pull them across the multiverse when there weren't any close at hand? Team Plasma wasn't gonna like that, heheh.) But she wished Catrin had been more certain. She'd have to do some investigating about going home while she was here. But... if she'd been called here, and her coming had really been prophesized like Catrin said, then she shouldn't be in a hurry to get home, should she? Her heart heaved with longing to see her parents and her siblings and Steven, and Mom was abso_lutely _going to brain her with a plank of wood when she got back. Her family needed her, and it was wrong to stay away. But this world was dying, and it needed her, too. Could she really walk away?

Elaine exhaled out the last of her anxieties. "Okay. So how do we bring back the sun?"

Catrin's face lit up so brightly that Elaine almost figured she'd done her job just like that. "Thank you so much, Savior. As your pokemon guide, I'll help you to the fullest extent of my ability!"

"Thanks, Catrin," Elaine grinned.

Catrin's sharp, white teeth flashed as his jaws parted in a yawn. "We should get some rest. Later on, we'll get acquainted with the town and see about having a house built." He tucked his head towards his body and curled his fluffy tail around him, so Elaine couldn't even see his face. She waited for a goodnight, but within minutes, Catrin's breathing evened and slowed. The oshawott was asleep.

Elaine didn't fall asleep so easy. Her brain was a muddled mixture of exhausted, dead, and not tired at all. Too scared to sleep. Everything about this was so scary. Shivering against the icy rock, she looked up at the cold, dead sky. It had no life in it at all. This whole world felt like a dead pidove on the side of the pavement. She tucked her legs towards herself. She tried to breathe.

Something flickered behind her, startling Elaine. She jumped, thankfully not enough to wake Catrin, and looked over her shoulder at what had started to glow.

It was her tail. The round, fuzzy orb at the end of her curled tepig tail was now emitting a gentle, yellow-white light. It was like a light bulb, casting a soft, cozy glow across the burrow. A little sun. It reminded her of the yellow nightlight she plugged into the outlet in her and Katelyn's room every night, so her little sister could rest with her zombie phobia assuaged.

After that, Elaine fell asleep with ease.

* * *

**Author's Note**

Hello all! MouseWithADinosaurTail here. I've been rather quiet till now, but I wanted to take a moment to say thank you for reading Solstice! This story is actually based on a nuzlocke run I did of PMD: Gates to Infinity. It can be read as an ordinary fanfiction no problem. But in case you want to know more about the gameplay that led to this being created, here are the rules of the run I did!

\- Only the first pokemon who asks to join the team in each mystery dungeon may be recruited.

\- The Hero and Partner must be chosen randomly via dice rolls.

\- Paradise pokemon do not count for the catch of any mystery dungeon.

\- If a pokemon faints, they must be removed from the team.

\- If the Hero or Partner faint, the run is over.

\- Paradise pokemon who faint cannot be used again on the team. Exceptions will be made for when their use is mandatory, such as boss battles.

\- Hydreigon is immune to death while in the party.

\- One reviver seed can be taken into each main story dungeon. All extras must be eaten. Reviver seeds cannot be used for jobs.

\- No fire-types besides the Hero can join the team.

Hope you all are enjoying the story!


	4. Swanna and Gurdurr

"Amazing! Absolutely amazing!" The yellow light brought out a curious wonder in Catrin's eyes, as he stared at Elaine's tail with mouth agape the next morning. "And you said it started before you fell asleep?"

"Uh huh. While I was trying to sleep." She waved her hips a little, so the tail bounced and swayed from where it sat curled over her back. She could feel its pulsing warmth all the time. It was oddly soothing. "Weird, right? I guess this Savior stuff isn't too far-fetched."

"This is the light you brought to us from another world." Catrin cupped his paws around her tail, which made her shift uncomfortably. It was just a tad too far in her personal bubble, and she still wasn't feeling exactly right in her new skin. But Catrin didn't seem to notice as he basked in the light. His fur looked far less dingy in it, and he fell quiet as countless emotions swam through his eyes. "Sunlight. I almost forgot what it felt like."

He finally let her tail down and, when he saw her staring at him, blushed. "S-sorry."

"No worries!" Elaine said. "So, we're going into town today?"

"Yes! Yes we are." Catrin started to pad south through his newly purchased land, on two feet this time instead of four, and Elaine trotted after him. "The Church sent me here to build a paradise, but in its current state..." He glanced around at the rocky land like it was a garbage dump. "It's not gonna be any good for building. We need to get a house built so we don't have to sleep outside and find someone to contract for landscaping."

"You guys have landscaping in this world?" Elaine asked.

Catrin gave her a weird look. "Why wouldn't we, Savior?" he asked in a voice like a teacher's after hearing a student ask a stupid question.

Elaine's cheeks heated up, and she pouted. "Wh- W-well, I dunno! I-I was just wondering. I figured a sun would be higher on the priority list of things to have in a world than landscaping businesses."

The look Catrin shot her could have killed a man on the spot. Elaine turned away, sweating awkwardly and sucking in a breath. _Okay, don't joke about the sun. Got it._

They backtracked through the labyrinth of dull red rock and scraggly, dead bushes and eventually came to Quagsire's clearing. Elaine brightened at the idea of seeing him again, but when she didn't spot him anywhere, her big, dumbo ears drooped. "Quagsire's not here today, huh?"

Catrin, who hadn't even spared a glance at the old stone house, peered at it past the side of his hood. "Hm, suppose not." He dropped down onto all fours and trotted faster through the clearing, and Elaine had to jog to catch up to him. With a last lingering glance at Quagsire's hut, she followed Catrin to the crossroads.

With the rocks no longer blocking the view, Elaine saw the silhouette of a hill looming just ahead. The distant glow of firelight bounced along the oblong, geometric shadows of houses. This must've been the Post Town Elaine had been hearing so much about. She could hear a stream burbling up ahead, but nothing else. To be so close to a town with the air this quiet… It was eerie. Like she was standing in the shadow of a place that had died long ago.

Catrin hesitated at the crossroads, standing up on his haunches and scenting the air like a cautious pachirisu. Considering his next comment, he must have found the town as ghostly as Elaine did. "I smell pokemon. Not too many, but a good amount. This place is hardly abandoned."

"Well, that's good, right? We can find someone who'll help us build a house!"

"Mhm." Catrin dropped onto all fours, and they padded forward.

The road wound into the town through a large wooden gate with a sign at the top, written in swirling pictographs that were meaningless to Elaine. As they entered, the shadows lifted themselves off the buildings like magicians' handkerchiefs and revealed Post Town. The town was built up along the hill, with little shops clustered around the hill's base and houses rising off the hill like stones. Some buildings were more decorated— there was a shop shaped like a kecleon's head and another that looked like a rampardos— but most of the houses were a part of the earth. The grass on the hill was brittle and dead and felt like hay underfoot, and the trees were leafless, hollow shells, but there was still life to be found here. There were pokemon about, not many but a few. Tall torches cast burbling, red light over the town. It reminded Elaine of the villages in the gritty apocalypse video games that she, Steven, and the gang played co-op in, but somehow, it felt a lot homier.

"I suppose our first step should be to speak with Swanna, the village head," Catrin said as he stared suspiciously at the passing pokemon, who glared daggers at him in return. "Is that alright with you, Savior?"

"I guess?" Elaine shrugged.

Catrin gave a little smile. "Excellent! Then I think we can find her in that inn up there."

"What makes you- Ah." Looking up, Elaine noticed that the sign over the inn up ahead was shaped like a graceful swanna spreading its wings. "Alright! Let's go inside!"

The inn was built into the hill, with the large, cavernous entrance supported by round, wooden frames. At the entrance, Catrin paused for a moment to stand up on his haunches and brush off his cloak, and he licked his paw and ran it through the fur on his face. He puffed out his chest just a little, hardly in an assertive way but more in a psyching-himself-up way, and then walked into the building. Giggling, Elaine trotted after him.

The cave entrance opened into a warm tavern, with gray-brown earthen walls and torches lighting the place in a warm, red glow. Pokemon were bustling around, playing card games at the round tables and glugging frothing drinks at the bar. It was warm in here, almost a little too warm. Elaine was breaking into a sweat already; it was like they had an oven blasting somewhere. She stole a glance at Catrin, but if he could feel it, he wasn't showing it. He scanned the inn, eyes narrowed in concentration, and then perked up. "There."

A massive swanna was behind the bar, passing mugs and bills to various customers. Her feathers were a beautiful pristine white with an almost pink glow to them in the torchlight, and though her face lacked a smile, her eyes were warm like mugs of dark hot cocoa. Catrin and Elaine approached the bar (the inn patrons shooting them suspicious glares as they went), and Catrin cleared his throat. "Excuse me, Swanna?"

Swanna didn't even spare Catrin a glance as she wrote out a bill for the lycanroc seated in front of her. "Patience, there were pokemon here before you, now." Catrin scrunched his nose up and swished his tail in agitation, but he managed not to open his mouth and spun around to lean against the bar. Elaine watched Swanna work in the meantime. There was so much grace to all her movements; she carried herself like the woman in charge, which made sense, considering she was apparently the head of the town. Finally, after collecting some golden coins from the lycanroc, she looked down to Catrin. "Can I help you, Oshawott?"

Catrin's eyes widened as he realized the attention was on him. He quickly adjusted his cloak and said, "L-Lady Swanna! I'm the representative from the Church of the Sun who came to Post Town in order to build a church-designated sanctuary. We exchanged letters. Do you recall?"

Swanna mulled it over for a moment before she clacked her beak and said, "Ah, yes, yes, you're the missionary. So you've arrived, hm? Did you meet with Quagsire? The land you're after is his. He has the deed for you."

"I did. We made the transaction. I just wanted to drop by and formally introduce myself," said Catrin. He dipped his head and bent a knee in a slight bow, and his hood fell further down over his eyes.

"Very well, very well. I'll leave you to work at your own devices. I hope you don't need me babysitting over there." Swanna chuckled and waved off the joke with a flap of her angelic white wing. Catrin's face soured at the comment.

"I think we'll manage," he muttered.

"Good." Swanna poured full a mug of a frothy golden drink (Beer, maybe? Did pokemon drink beer?) and slid it over to a panpour a few stools down. Only after the panpour was sipping happily did she turn back to Catrin, and that's when her eyes drifted across Elaine. "Is this a friend of yours?"

Catrin looked caught off-guard. "Y-yes! This is the-"

"My name's Elaine!" She spoke quickly, practically jumping in front of Catrin to cut him off. "Nice to meet you, Miss Swanna."

Both Swanna, Catrin, and the nearby bar patrons all blinked at her in mild surprise. Elaine wondered for a second if she'd done something wrong until Swanna smiled, and the other pokemon turned away. "Very good to meet you, Elaine! Doesn't take you long to warm up to others, does it?"

"I guess not," Elaine shrugged. It was an odd comment, but she didn't spare it much thought. "We were actually wondering if you know anyone who could help us build a house! It's pretty cold and windy outside of town."

"Yes, there are plenty of reasons Quagsire's land is cheap," Swanna sighed. "If you want a house, Gurdurr is your best bet. He's my hired hand, he helps to defend the town. But I recall he did good carpentry back before the sun went out. You'll find him over there."

At the sight of who Swanna was pointing at, Elaine's stomach flipped over like a trained dewgong. Sitting at the corner table was a hulking gurdurr about the size of an eighteen-wheeler. A thick, yellow tooth jutted out from his scrunched-up lips, and his mean, yellow eyes were an eighth the size of his bruised tomato nose. Each of his beefy, scar-covered arms was wrapped around a doe-eyed girl pokemon. Steven and Jamal liked to wrestle wild timburr and sawks in Pinwheel Forest (not that Elaine had ever come, her mom would kill her), but she was pretty damn certain they'd run screaming from this brute.

"I'd rather anyone else," Catrin deadpanned. He stared at Gurdurr like the pokemon was just the next item on the list of why he was having a bad week.

"He's the only carpenter who'll take a job from you while you're in that cloak, Oshawott." Swanna didn't even look up from the beer she was pouring.

Catrin shot her a glare that she never even saw. He licked his claw and slid it down the blade of his shell, and then he marched over to Gurdurr with his head held high. Elaine quickly scampered behind him. Maybe Gurdurr wouldn't see her behind his cloak? Hopefully?

They arrived at the table, where Gurdurr was ignoring the medicham and manectric practically rubbing all over him. The fighting-type was incredibly distracting, but despite it, Elaine noticed a strange sight. Sitting on the floor behind the table in the corner of the inn were a pair of timburr. They huddled together and looked incredibly small, like if they squeezed themselves far enough to the corner, they could disappear. They had bandages and gauze pads haphazardly wrapped on various parts of their bodies. Elaine met eyes with one of them, the larger one, and when she did, she nearly stepped back. The timburr looked small, but there was a fire blazing in her eyes. Not a raging inferno like Catrin's, but a cold ember that had been watered down but still refused to die. The timburr stared intensely at Elaine, and then at Catrin.

Elaine glanced at Catrin, but he hadn't noticed them. He was too little to look over the table, he hopped up onto a barrel and cleared his throat. "Excuse me."

The girls stopped giggling and stared at Catrin wide-eyed, like he'd just walked up and asked to be eaten. Gurdurr didn't even look up.

Catrin wrinkled his nose and banged a fist on the table, though it was more like a _tap tap _than a _bang bang. _Elaine knew her _tap tap_s and _bang bang_s very well. "_Excuse me. _I am talking to you."

For a long moment, Gurdurr tightened his fingers around the handle of his beer mug so hard that Elaine heard the glass creak, lifted it to his lips, and chugged the entire drink over the course of the next sixty seconds. Then he slammed the glass on the table so hard that she, Catrin, and the girls all jumped. His beady yellow eyes lifted up to look at Catrin. It was the biggest acknowledgment he was gonna get.

"Swanna has alerted me that you are the town's carpenter." Catrin's tail swished. "I just purchased the land adjacent to Post Town, and I'm looking to have a house built. Can you be of service?"

Gurdurr stared at Catrin for what felt like the entirety of an AP test. Elaine started wondering if she'd have to drag Catrin's dead body out of here herself or if Quagsire might help her. But finally, Gurdurr let out a sigh like a car engine's revving, crossed his planet-sized arms, and grumbled, "Stony Cave."

Huh?

Catrin blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"Stony Cave. Mystery dungeon, north. Bring the blue gems. You'll get your house."

Catrin opened his mouth to ask a question, but Gurdurr stood up, the girls falling off him, and left the inn without looking back. The crowd split like a vulpix's tails as he went. Catrin stared after him, wide eyed, and then glanced at the girls. "Did either of you two hussies understand what he just said?"

"Ugggghhhh, is it that hard to get? Just go to Stony Cave and get those blue gems you find inside. That's what all his clients pay 'im," the manectric grumbled as she slumped down against the table. She clearly wasn't happy about losing her own client.

"Yeah. Suggest you get on it, unless you wanted to buy anything else." Elaine did not like the way the medicham said _anything else_.

"I'm good," Catrin spat. He jumped down from the table and stormed out of the inn. Realizing she was getting left behind, Elaine dashed after him.

Catrin was muttering as she caught up to him outside the inn. "And I thought Swanna was supposed to be respectable. That inn is a disgrace to the Sun! I'm never bringing the Savior there again, that place is far beneath her!"

"I thought it was nice. Kinda intimidating, but nice. Swanna seemed alright!" Elaine said as she fell into step with Catrin.

Still fuming, Catrin opened his mouth to argue, but just then, a voice piped up behind them. "U-uhh, hey!" Elaine and Catrin turned to see the two timburr chasing after them. She couldn't help but blink in surprise. With how glued the timburr looked to the corner, it was weird to see them running up to her. The littler one looked incredibly nervous. There was a lot of hesitation in the taller one's posture, but Elaine could still see that flame.

"WHAT?!" Catrin snapped. Elaine huffed- there wasn't any reason to talk to people that way!— but she didn't say anything.

The timburrs' eyes widened, and they stumbled a few steps back. The taller timburr clutched the other's hand tightly and looked at the ground. "N-never mind. Sorry to bother you."

"Well don't go shouting after people if you have nothing to say!" Catrin's yell boomed across the town square. He whipped around and stormed off. A herdier shouted, "Mind your damn manners, church boy," but Catrin just barked, "Be _quiet_, old man!" and stormed out of town. He'd apparently forgotten Elaine.

So, she turned to the timburr. "I'm sorry about him. He's, uh... mood swingy."

"I-it's okay," the girl timburr murmured. She wrung her hands together and kicked at the ground. "Just, umm... Be careful coming back from Stony Cave." Elaine blinked, figuring she'd misunderstood the message, but the timburr sprinted off before she could ask.

Elaine frowned. That was... weird. But she didn't have time to go after them, did she? Not with Catrin storming off ahead. Skirting to avoid all the other pokemon in the square, she passed under the gate of Post Town and dashed off to find Catrin. Stony Cave, here she came.


	5. Lost in the Dark

"So, are you gonna tell me what a mystery dungeon is now?"

They'd been walking north along the road for some time. Elaine couldn't tell how long. In fact, it was hard to judge how much time had passed since she'd gotten to this world, since the sky never changed. Catrin had spent most of the walk muttering under his breath and hacking at dead grass with his shell, so Elaine had left him alone. She wasn't gonna pull the pin on that grenade. She was pretty sure she liked Catrin, but sometimes he really reminded her of... Ah, well, never mind. She just didn't want his simmering wrath to turn on her, is all. But finally, his breathing was seeming to even out, and he'd put his shell back on his belly, so she figured it was safe to prod him.

"Hm?" Catrin's ear flicked in her direction.

"A mystery dungeon! You mentioned it at Ragged Mountain. And Gurdurr mentioned it earlier."

Catrin said nothing. He looked like a tutor who'd just been asked to explain sine and cosine for the eighth time that session, except Elaine had only asked once, so that didn't really seem fair. But she didn't wanna upset him, so she was about to say, "Okay, never mind," but she only got a couple words in before he sighed and spoke.

"I _should _explain, shouldn't I? Sun's ray, I'm about to bring the Savior into a mystery dungeon." He squirmed under his cloak. Looking at him, Elaine suddenly became terribly nervous about what was coming. "Okay, so essentially, a mystery dungeon is a natural place that has become... distorted."

"Distorted?" Elaine blinked.

"Yes. They were here when the Sun was, albeit rare occurrences. But, since the Sun... went out, they've cropped up in great numbers. More and more places are turning into them. Even towns, churches..." He trailed off for a moment but seemed to snap out of it, and he looked at her as they walked. "Essentially, a mystery dungeon is a place whose physicality no longer obeys the natural laws of physics. The very fabric of the place is as fluid as an ocean current. Shifting, changing. No two pokemon who walk through a mystery dungeon will walk through the same dungeon." Catrin scrunched his nose up, like he was describing a rotten apple and not something that sounded completely metal. "As they become more and more distorted, bizarrer things happen in them: the place can become layered, traps and secret detours can appear, the corridors can even lead you into completely different mystery dungeons. Any questions so far?"

Just one. Was bizarrer actually a word? But she wasn't gonna ask that. "I... think I've got it, but this is so weird. How does a place just start breaking physical laws? That's..." Elaine had been about to say _that's impossible, _but the other day she would've also called a sun vanishing out of the sky impossible. When in Geosenge, she guessed. "Wouldn't it be easy to get lost?"

"Yes. Very. So, there are three things you _must _remember when exploring a mystery dungeon." Catrin held up a claw as he started listing them off. "One: follow the stairs. Stairwells will often appear in mystery dungeons. They'll guide you on your way and help you traverse between floors. Mystery dungeons will often try to trick you, drag you into the mist, but you can always trust the stairs. Two: don't destroy the walls. Some pokemon have tried to get through mystery dungeons by excavating new tunnels, but this causes what stability the dungeon has left to collapse. It's not a good scenario, so just stick to the paths the dungeon gives you. And three: don't stay inside too long."

"Cause you can get lost?" Elaine asked.

Catrin grimaced as he stared into the distance. "Yes. And if you get lost for too long, you won't die. Something... much, much worse happens..." He trailed off and yanked his hood forcefully over his head.

Well, that wasn't foreboding at all. Elaine fell quiet as well. She knew she should have questions, concerns, probably some anxieties about going into a place where death was not the worst possible outcome. But she had to admit: her heart was bouncing with excitement to see a mystery dungeon for herself! She'd never heard of anything even remotely similar in her own world; the closest example she could think of was people getting lost in the Relic Castle ruins. But an entire place bending over the laws of physics? Steven was gonna FLIP when she told him! Though Catrin was practically dragging his feet, she trotted forward with a skip in her step. She was gonna see a mystery dungeon, she was gonna see a mystery dungeon!

They reached a crossroads, and Catrin bounded up to the signs pointing down each path. They were written with the same swirling symbols as the signs in Post Town. Something about the elusiveness of the symbols aggravated Elaine. She knew she was being a baby, but it just didn't seem fair that everyone could read them but her. So she turned away as Catrin scanned the signs, and he pointed his nose at the left path. "Stony Cave is this way. Should be right around that bend."

"Nice!" Elaine said.

They continued on and passed by a bend, walking along the edge of a burbling river tumbling over gray stones. Just up ahead was a hulking castle of dark gray stone. As they approached, a feeling of unease crept over Elaine. It was like walking through the school hallways at night (something she'd gotten to do at the recycling club's twenty-four-hour famine). It looked normal by appearance, and nothing _should_ have been wrong. But it felt so... unnatural. She could feel it in waves coming off the place, a terrible uneasiness. It felt like she was approaching an injured, dying animal that would claw her hand off and fight pointlessly for its life.

She glanced over at Catrin. By the way he was grimacing and his fur was standing on end, it was pretty obvious he felt it, too. Their eyes met for a second, and he turned his nose forward and muttered under his breath, "I hate mystery dungeons."

There was a little signpost by the gaping black entrance to the cave, and Catrin stood up on his hind legs and read the unknown, swirling letters. "This is certainly Stony Cave. I assume you feel it already."

"It feels wrong," Elaine murmured. "Like an anxiety attack."

"All mystery dungeons feel that way. They're a wrongness in the world, a glitch. Our natural instincts try to steer us away from such dangerous places," Catrin explained. "But we need those gems. What a selfish pokemon Gurdurr is, sending us into a mystery dungeon to get his payment."

"Maybe they're _really _nice gems?" Elaine tried, smiling nervously.

Catrin scoffed. "Whatever. Just stay close to me, Savior." He dropped onto all fours, and together, they stepped into the dark.

Right away, Elaine felt like she was walking into the mouth of a giant animal. By eyesight, it just looked like a normal cave (at least as far as she knew, she'd been to a grand total of one cave in her life and that had been at Ragged Mountain), but the entire structure groaned as she and Catrin stepped in. They were met with towering gray walls of darkness, and a single path wove its way into the depths. Catrin looked like he was about to throw up, his hackles raised and fur bristling like a nervous purrloin. He stood still for a long moment before seeming to realize he was frozen. With a fleeting glance at Elaine, he muttered, "Come on," and padded forward. Taking a deep breath, she followed after him.

Elaine felt like she was glitching out of bounds in a Sonik game. She tried to settle her writhing anxiety by remembering why she'd been excited to come here. Even though, so far, it just looked like a dark cave, this was a mystery dungeon, right? A place that worked outside the laws of normal physics! Something beyond the powers of time and space! Even though every instinct in her body was still telling her to leave and leave fast, she swallowed the fear. Fake it till you make it, right?

"So, when does something happen?" she asked Catrin.

"With luck, never." His eyes scanned the whole cave, looking for danger.

"But don't the paths here bend and change?" Elaine asked. "When are we gonna see stairs? Stairs in a cave? Dragon, that's gonna be cool."

"Nothing about this is 'cool,' Savior."

"It's a little bit cool! You have to admit, even if it's dangerous, mystery dungeons seem metal as hell."

Catrin blinked at her. "Metal?"

"Metal! But come on, I want something to happen!"

And something, indeed, happened.

The cave suddenly lurched around them, like whatever animal they were inside was about to throw them up. The walls groaned, and suddenly, the sliver of outside light vanished behind them, like someone had pulled the curtains over the cave entrance. The only light now was the soft, yellow light of Elaine's tail.

Elaine crouched low to the ground. "Wh-what just happened?"

Catrin looked back the way they came, deadpan, and wrinkled his nose. "It closed us in. Wonderful."

"You mean we're stuck here?!"

"There are usually other exits. The caves are just shifting. We'll find another way out with luck, but for now, we need to keep looking for those gems." Catrin padded onwards without so much as a glance back at the way they came. Gulping, Elaine followed him. This was still fun. Mystery dungeons were still cool. It definitely was not anxiety-inducing to be in a place that wanted to _swallow you alive. _Everything was fine!

As they ventured deeper, Elaine noticed that it wasn't just a single path anymore. It branched out more and more like a tree, different black openings in the wall weaving out from the central path. And there were different things down them, too. Some were made of red rock, closer to the stuff in Quagsire's land. Some were black and porous like from a volcano. Others were… bright purple? That was weird. Sometimes paths would seal up behind them, like a giant invisible hand was grabbing the rock on either side of the entrance and pulling it closed like curtains. And more than once, Elaine saw paths open like a pair of stone lips stretching wide. The ground beneath her heaved gently, rhythmically. The whole place felt alive.

When she brought this up to Catrin, he scoffed. "Mystery dungeons aren't alive, Savior, don't be foolish. They just like you to think they are."

Elaine blinked. "But, how can they want you to think anything if they aren't alive?"

Catrin was silent for a long moment after that, before he huffed and muttered, "Let's just drop this."

Catrin still seemed nervous, hackles raised at all times, but Elaine had to admit that the fear was dropping away. It was actually breathtaking, watching the walls of the mystery dungeon change around her in real time. She'd thought it'd be a "you'll never see it change but turn around and it'll be different!" sort of deal, like a horror video game, but this was _much _cooler. One hundred percent metal. No, a hundred and _one!_

And finally, they reached the thing she'd been most excited to see: the stairs. One second, the floor in front of them was ordinary, flat stone. The next, the rock pushed itself aside to reveal a curving stone staircase winding its way into the depths. The yellow light of Elaine's tail spilled down the steps like water. She grinned wide, and even Catrin smiled a bit. "Good. We're going the right way. Come now, you can trust the stairs." He got up on his hind legs, and they descended together, one step at a time. Elaine had to take it slow; going down a staircase on all fours was _deceptively _hard, but with Catrin to lean on, she made it without tripping. That alone was a miracle and a half. As soon as they trod down the last step and onto flat ground, the stairs folded up behind them, the rock lurched and shifted back out, and the passage disappeared. All that was behind them was ordinary rock wall.

"Is that safe that they're gone?" Elaine asked.

"Stairs will usually disappear after use. It's normal." The path here went two ways, so Catrin dropped back onto all fours and went left. Elaine followed him. "So far, this has been a pretty standard dungeon experience. The mysteriosity level doesn't seem terribly high. At least, not dangerously so."

"Mysteriosity?"

"A measure of the level of physical distortion a dungeon is undergoing. It ranks on a scale of one to six. I'm certainly no expert, but this cave can't be above a two."

Elaine's eyes lit up as bright as her tail. "So, there are even crazier dungeons out there?" She tried to hide it, but she cracked a smile.

"Yes, but it's nothing to smile about! These places kill people, Savior."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. It's just-" She paused as an entrance opened up to her right, revealing a room filled to the brim with glittering purple amethysts like a mouthful of sharpedo teeth. She jumped over to it and pointed excitedly with her hoof. "That's wicked cool, Catrin!"

Catrin looked over her shoulder into the room of amethysts, and for a moment his eyes seemed to light up. The gems were reflected off his dark blue irises, and a glimmer of something sparkled back. Elaine grinned, figuring maybe she'd gotten past that thorny exterior of his, but before she could comment on it, his face suddenly morphed into one of terror. "Savior, BEHIND YOU!"

Elaine spun around in a second. She reeled back at the sight of a dull gray drilbur scrabbling over the rocks towards her. Her hair stood on end. Its fur was washed out, and it moved like some sort of facehugger. It scrabbled over a mound of jagged amethyst, and that's when Elaine saw its eyes. Hollow, icy blue shells, the vacant eyes of a dead animal. Anxiety seized Elaine so hard she nearly doubled over. In a voiceless scream, the drilbur lunged.

"DUCK!"

By some sheer streak of luck, Elaine managed to leap out of the way just as a blast of water rocketed from behind her. It blasted the drilbur back into the amethyst. It choked out a breathy gasp like a broken air conditioner. Catrin screamed, "RUN!", and he grabbed Elaine by the ear and pulled her down the corridor in a sprint. It took all her strength to run beside him without Catrin literally dragging her.

"What the hell was that?!"

"A Lost," Catrin shouted. They reached a fork in the caverns and stopped for just a moment, both huffing and puffing. "Remember when I told you something bad happens if you get lost in a dungeon too long?"

Elaine's eyes widened. Oh Dragon, this was not fun anymore.

"This way." Catrin gestured to the left path. But before he could move, the faint sound of wheezing echoed from the corridor. Glowing, hollow blue spheres appeared in the dark. Not just two; there must have been ten or more! Elaine could see shapes shifting in the shadows, shambling like broken robots. This was absolutely NOT CHILL.

Catrin sucked in a massive breath, his chest puffing out and his arms up at his sides. With a roar he unleashed a massive water gun into the dark. Elaine heard the blast connect to something and a bunch of wheezing gasps as those _things _were knocked back. The faint glow of their eyes fizzled out. Catrin pushed Elaine in front of him, and they both sprinted down the right corridor. But Elaine could hear the thudding of footsteps behind them. Something was chasing them. It was coming _fast._

"They're after us!" Elaine cried at Catrin.

"I know! I'll protect you, just keep moving!" But suddenly, the cave thundered. Elaine felt the ground heave and lurch under her hooves. She only just managed to skid to a stop before a wall of rock jumped up before her nose, and the cave shut. Catrin slammed into her from behind and flipped over onto his back with a yelp. "DAMNED MYSTERY DUNGEONS!" He kicked the rock and screamed.

Elaine heard more thudding from behind; it was getting closer by the second. She pressed herself back against the wall. It suddenly felt like the oxygen had gotten sucked out of the room. Every breath was like breathing in smoke. "Wh-what do we do?" she whimpered.

Catrin jumped onto all fours and sprang in front of her as icy blue eyes blinked out of the dark. He grabbed his shell and held it out to his side like a knife. "Stay behind me." Elaine didn't respond—she couldn't respond, she was breathing so hard— and Catrin spoke again. "Don't be afraid, Savior. I swear I will protect you with my life. Those things won't touch a hair on your head. Do you understand me?"  
"If you're trying to comfort me, you could sound less like you're scolding me," was all Elaine could blurt out. He just rolled his eyes at her and focused his vision ahead.

Three gothitas emerged out of the dark. Elaine's heart palpitated. She was familiar with zombies— zombie apocalypse movies were all the rage in Unova a couple years back; she and Steven had gone to see plenty. He and Jamal liked to make fun of them and tease Elaine for finding them a guilty pleasure. But these things, the Lost, they didn't move like zombies. They moved like wind-up toys with few gears missing, like statues. And they didn't breathe. Their sides were still as rock, and their pale blue eyes didn't blink even once (unless they were blinking at the exact same time she was blinking, in which case, wig). Catrin was clearly ready to throw down his life for her, but how could you beat something that wasn't even alive?  
The gothitas stood in a line, approaching nearer and nearer. Suddenly, a faint pink light glowed around their pale blue eyes. Anxiety shot through Elaine. She'd seen a few pokemon battles and knew what psychic-type moves looked like, but that didn't come close to preparing her for what it felt like to get hit by one. One second she was fine. The next, it felt like a brick had been plunged through her brain. She screamed in pain and doubled over. Her vision split into fractals, and she would have thrown up if her stomach wasn't empty.

"Savior!" Catrin cried. She looked up to see him gritting his teeth; the confusion had hit him too. Snarling furiously, he whirled around and lunged at the Lost. "STOP HURTING MY SAVIOR!"

He grabbed the first gothita he could reach and ripped at its face with his claws. The gothita made heaving gasps of pain. As the other gothita whirled around to defend it, the confusion attack ebbed, and Elaine slumped to the ground, breathing hard. Dragon, that was freaking AWFUL! How did pokemon deal with getting hit with those attacks every day?! She groaned and clutched her head, but at the sound of hissing and spitting, she turned back to the battle. Catrin had knocked the first gothita to the ground and was hacking at it with his shell. Black blood spurted from the Lost's body, and Catrin's attacks were merciless. He jumped off the Lost and kicked its body to the side of the cave as the other two gothitas advanced on him. Eyes glowing faint pink, they attacked. Catrin gave a strangled cry, and his shell fell out of his shaking paws. But his chest heaved, and he blasted a water gun at them both. It knocked them back, but the gothitas didn't even blink before they began to creep closer, and the third one was rising again like a zombie from where Catrin had kicked it. Their eyes glowed again as they used confusion. Hit by the brunt of the attack from all three gothitas, Catrin choked out a cry like a dying animal in a Pokemon Center. With the oshawott shaking on the ground, the Lost lunged.

"No!" Elaine cried. She had no idea how the Lost worked, how battling worked, how _anything _in this world worked. But Catrin was cowering as the gothita slammed him with confusion from all sides. He'd protected her, and she was the Savior; she couldn't just stand by! Her lungs suddenly clenched in pain. She hacked and coughed, but even that wasn't gonna stop her. She scraped the ground with her hoof like a true tepig and burst off at a sprint. "Leave him ALONE!"

On her last word, something happened that even Elaine hadn't expected. Her throat clenched and heaved, and a blast of fire rocketed from her nose. The flame leapt at the closest gothita, and the Lost gasped heavily and scurried away as its fur burned off its skin. Elaine skid to a halt. "Holy shit! I just BREATHED FIRE!"

"Savior, g-get back!" Catrin barked at her. In the confusion, the gothita had stopped attacking him, and he leaped to his feet, grabbed his shell off the ground, and slashed at the closest gothita. It gave a strangled gasp as it fell over, blood spurting from a deep wound in its neck. Dragon, had he just killed that thing?! Catrin launched a water gun at the last one, slamming it into the rock. He yelled "FOLLOW ME!" and sprinted the other way down the tunnel. Elaine followed him. Smoke was still spilling out of her lungs like she was a burning oven. It felt like she was breathing in nails! Hacking and coughing, her legs turned to spaghetti under her, and she started to skid.

"Here! Here they are!" Catrin cried from up ahead. He was looking down new path that must have opened up in the rock after they'd run by. Stairs had appeared! "Go quick, Savior!" he yelled to Elaine. Only after she was running down the stairs did he follow her. Elaine spotted more pale blue eyes glowing in the dark at the top of the stairs. But before the monsters could follow, the rock closed behind them.

They were safe.

"We can stop here for a moment." As soon as he said it, Elaine hastily sat down right there on the steps before her legs could collapse. More and more smoke spilled out from her lungs. Every breath was a hack, and her head was spinning. Catrin finally seemed to notice her anguish, because he bounced over to her, eyes wide with concern. "Why are you still breathing smoke? We're safe now."

"C-can't... I can't..." Elaine tried to speak, but with her lungs bucking like a tauros at every breath, she couldn't even get her words out.

Catrin was still for a moment. He then sprang down the stairs, tail swishing behind him as he ran off onto the next floor. Elaine's chest seized with anxiety; weren't the stairs gonna close up behind him?! But she guessed everyone had to be off them before that happened, cause thankfully, the rock didn't move. Her vision was doubling by the time Catrin returned. Eyes determined, he put an arm on her back. "Come this way, just a little further. There's some water you can drink."

Water! Good! Jamal always said water helped with smoke pain. She managed to get to her feet, but when Catrin put an arm under her chest to support her, her heart palpitated, and she pulled away. He gave her a strange look. "Savior, let me help you."  
She shook her head. "Mm. N-no, 'm fine." She struggled down the stairs ahead of Catrin, and he followed her close behind.

Sure enough, there was water at the bottom of the stairs. They came into a large, open cavern with bright blue crystals jutting from nearly every surface of the room. In a dip in the rock was a pool of water. Elaine breathed a sigh of relief and stumbled over to it. By the time she was done drinking, there was hardly any water in the pool left. It brought incredible relief to her throat, and when she pulled her head back up, the smoke was gone. Thank the Dragon!

Elaine plopped her butt down and groaned. "Being a fire-type suuuuucks." Her voice was hoarse. Geez, she sounded like Jamal and his friends at one of their 4/20 sleepovers.

Catrin stared at her with concern. The oshawott looked like a different person when he wasn't scowling. It was honestly kinda creepy. "Are you sure you're alright, Savior?"

"Y-yes! I'm fine." She coughed a few more times. No more smoke, but her lungs still felt scarred. "S-sorry about that, I don't know why that happened."

"If you're not used to controlling your new physicality, it's understandable why your powers might... do that," Catrin explained. "It usually happens to pokemon when they evolve, and they're stronger than they're used to. I know some dewotts who were close to drowning themselves with water gun when they evolved."

Elaine whimpered. "If you're trying to be comforting, it's not working."

"Sorry," Catrin shrugged. He scratched at his ear and mumbled, "You can let me help you, you know. I'm your pokemon guide. I'm just trying to do my job."

Anxiety squeezed her heart, but Elaine put on a smile. "I'm fine. You don't gotta worry about me so much. I'm the one who's s'posed to be saving _you_, aren't I?" She laughed, hoping it didn't sound too fake.

"Well, yes. But we don't need you dying of self-afflicted asphyxiation before that happens."

Catrin got up and stalked away, and Elaine's ears drooped. She didn't want Catrin to care about her in that way... so why did it hurt so much that he didn't? But she smacked her snout with her hoof and shook her head. _Get over yourself, Elaine. You're here to save the world. It's not like you're on a field trip making friends. Just do your damn job._

She got up and followed Catrin to the other side of the cave, where he was digging in the rock. "Found something?"

"Indeed I have," Catrin said. He turned around with a smug, victorious smile on, and he gestured around the room. "Look around you, Savior. What did Gurdurr send us here to find?"

"Blue... crystals? Oh." Elaine's eyes widened, and she smiled as it hit her. "Oh!"

Catrin crossed his arms and put a foot on top of the nearest glittering, blue crystal. "Savior, we hit the jackpot," he said with a sharp-toothed grin. He grabbed his shell in both hands and slammed it down on the crystal. Elaine thought his shell would shatter on impact, but sure enough, it cleaved through the crystal and broke off a large chunk. The rock hit the ground and split into even more chunks, small enough to fit in a bag.

"We've got what we came here for," Catrin said, "So let's get these things to Gurdurr and get our damned house already."


	6. The Inept Hero

"I just want to say again that I'm sorry I had to bring you in there."

That was the first thing Catrin said after a long stretch of silence on their walk back to Post Town. The next set of stairs they'd found in Stony Cave had taken them back into the outside world. Since then, the pair's few attempts at small talk just led into awkward silence. Elaine still wasn't really in the mood to talk; her internal world was writhing, and her throat burned like she'd been eating cigars. "It's okay, Catrin, I'm happy to help. And I don't wanna sleep under a rock either, y'know?"

Catrin scowled. His hood was low over his eyes, and his ears were pointed back. "It's still disgraceful. The Savior should never have to enter a place as blasphemous as a mystery dungeon, see monsters as awful as _them..._"

He trailed off and grabbed his arm tight in his claws. Catrin looked like he was about to throw up. Elaine was pretty nervous to ask. She really did not want Catrin to blow up at her for bringing this up, and she still had a hard time telling what exactly set the oshawott off. But she felt the need to know. "Those things... the Lost... those are pokemon who got lost in the mystery dungeons?"

"... Yes..."

Elaine grimaced. "So they were normal pokemon. Ordinary like you, and Quagsire and Swanna."

"Yes."

Elaine's lip quivered. "Isn't there any way to cure them?"

It took Catrin a long time to respond. "One," he said. "Sunlight."

Elaine fell quiet. Catrin dropped onto all fours and padded ahead. His big, fluffy tail swished behind him; she could feel his agitation from here. Elaine looked up at the sky. The color hadn't changed a smidge since she'd gotten here. Sickly, purple night. Dingy violets and navy blues, not a star in sight. Not a light in sight. She felt the warm glow on her back and looked over her shoulder at her tail. It still glowed with that soft yellow light, the sunlight she'd apparently brought with her into this world.

It wasn't just about Catrin. There were so many people here that she had to save.

"HEY, WATCH IT!"

Elaine jolted from her thoughts and looked ahead to see Catrin was towering over another pokemon who'd fallen in the road. Not wanting her pokemon guide to rip someone to shreds, she dashed over. "What's going on?"

"This IDIOT just bumped me!" Catrin roared.

Elaine looked down to see it was a... a scraggy? She was pretty sure that was a scraggy. It was crumpled on the road like a wet towel, sniveling. "I-I-I'm so sorry, s-sir, I didn't mean-"

"Well WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING NEXT TIME!"

"Catrin!" The oshawott's snarl dropped into a surprised look when Elaine snapped at him. "Stop scaring it! It was probably an accident!"

Catrin said nothing; he looked like he'd just woken up from a dream. Sniveling and mewling, the scraggy scrambled to its feet and dashed up the road. Catrin just stared after it, but after a minute, he seemed to remember himself and scrunched up his nose. "Sorry."

"It's not me that needs an apology, Catrin." Elaine started to trot back up the road. "Come on. We wanna get to Gurdurr before it gets too late, right?"

"Yes. Yes, we do." On his back legs, Catrin walked ahead of her. "Stay behind me when we're in the inn, alright? I don't want Gurdurr anywhere near someone as important as you."

"Sounds good to me," Elaine mumbled. She wasn't huge on that sort of talk, but... it'd be a lie to say Gurdurr didn't scare the pants off her. If Catrin wanted to put himself in between them, she wasn't gonna tell him no.

As they headed back into Post Town, Elaine couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, even with the pokemon in the square shooting glares at them. The world outside this town didn't feel so safe anymore. It was a place where caves could break reality, and innocent pokemon could turn into glowy-eyed zombies. Post Town didn't feel that way. The pokemon here might not be the nicest, but at least they weren't coming for her blood with blank eyes and dysfunctional voice boxes. Swanna and Quagsire and Gurdurr were keeping this place safe! Surely nothing bad could happen here?

Elaine rolled her eyes at herself. She'd probably just jinxed it.

Catrin led the way through the square, his hood low over his eyes. He had his paw close to the shell on his chest and scraped his claws on its edge every time another pokemon got too close. Elaine wasn't fond of that. Yeah, these pokemon were definitely rude- for Dragon's sake, how many glares did these pokemon need to throw their way before it was enough?! But they weren't gonna attack them! They weren't the Lost.

The pokemon around town were even starting to become a little familiar. She recognized the herdier from before, the one who'd barked at Catrin, with gray flecks around his muzzle and wise, old amber eyes. He was walking alongside a lillipup who couldn't have been more than a couple months old, and a swadloon trailed after them. Elaine almost didn't recognize the species. It was bizarre to see a swadloon without their signature leaf clothing, but she figured fresh, green leaves were impossible to find in this world. The same kecleon, rampardos, and cinccino from earlier were still manning their shops, too. It was different from Castelia, where the shops were always being run by a different exhausted teenager every week, and the city was so big that you'd see a face and never see it again. Post Town, surprisingly, actually felt a little homey.

The inn was emptier than it'd been this morning. Elaine looked over to the counter, hoping to see Swanna, but she wasn't there. Instead, there was a panpour behind the counter, cleaning mugs under a water spout. The only patrons were a patrat and a rufflet chomping on some sort of weird food bars at one table, a heatmor snoring at another, and Gurdurr sitting at his spot in the corner. To her surprise, Elaine spotted the two timburr sitting at the table rather than in the corner like before. The smaller one was doodling with charcoal on a piece of parchment, and the other was twiddling her thumbs. Both of them looked pretty nervous, like they were expecting to be barked at any second. She recalled her encounter with the two from earlier, outside the inn. What had they told her again? Something about coming back? Eh, it probably wasn't important anyway.

Once Catrin made sure Elaine was behind him, he marched to Gurdurr's table and sprang up onto the barrel across from the massive pokemon. He crossed his arms and scowled. "We've retrieved your price."

The timburr glanced up at Catrin worriedly, and then met eyes with each other but didn't say anything. Elaine squinted at them. Why were these timburr so weird? Gurdurr, meanwhile, shot Catrin an annoyed glare and extended a palm. "Give."

Catrin flicked his tail. "A thank you would be appreciated. I had to go into a mystery dungeon for these gems, you know. I really did not want to be dealing with Lost today. Do you have any idea how risky it is to bring one such as my companion into-"

"Shut up and give," Gurdurr snarled.

"_Shut up and give,_" Catrin mimicked in a whiny voice under his breath. He stuck his paw into the pockets on the inside of his cloak and... didn't pull out the gems. Catrin squinted and started to pat his pockets furiously, and then he barked, ripped his cloak off over his head, and shook it furiously. The timburr scooched away from him, startled at the sudden movement, and Elaine squinted. Surely he hadn't dropped them. _Surely he hadn't dropped the gems they'd fought zombies to find._

"No gems, no house," Gurdurr muttered.

"_Be quiet,_" Catrin hissed. He was turning the cloak completely inside out looking for these things, checking in the hood, checking in the folds, checking secret pockets Elaine hadn't even seen before. A few coins and trinkets plopped out. But no blue gems.

"Oshawott-"

"I'm STILL LOOKING!" Catrin barked.

_SLAM._

Everyone in the inn nearly jumped out of their skin when Gurdurr shattered his beer glass on the table. The hulking pokemon rose to his feet, and Elaine nearly choked on her spit at the sight of how _absolutely massive _he was. She'd seen Gurdurrs in gym battles on TV, and sure they were pretty big but not _Dragon_ big. But here, with this muscle-clad monster towering over her, she realized just how small this new body was. How small she was. "No gems, NO HOUSE! If you have no blue gems, then go back to Stony Cave and GET MORE! And STOP WASTING MY TIME!"  
Catrin was frozen under Gurdurr's shadow, snarling. He seemed to know this was a fight he couldn't win. But he still wasn't moving, and Elaine didn't want Gurdurr to slam the glass handle of the destroyed mug on Catrin's face. Her voice came out as a mewl. "W-w-we really did go to Stony Cave and f-find those gems-"

"But there are no gems now. No gems, no house." It was like a clap of thunder when Gurdurr dropped back into his chair. "Get out."

Catrin said nothing. He squeezed his cloak, snarling, eyes twitching, and heaving so hard Elaine thought he might legitimately explode. She propped her forelegs (ugh, okay, calling them forelegs sounded gross, she was just gonna call them arms) up on the barrel and tugged Catrin's cloak with her teeth. "Come _on_, Catrin, we need to leave."

With a last growl at Gurdurr, Catrin jumped down from the barrel and stormed out of the inn for the second time today. Elaine followed him, but she spared a last glance at the timburr. One of them was clutching his arm and cowering, and the other held his hand under the table. He must've gotten spooked when Gurdurr broke the cup, poor thing. If they were Gurdurr's kids or something, no wonder they were so nervous all the time. She felt bad for them, but they weren't her pokemon. She dashed after Catrin out of the inn just in time to hear him scream.

"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAARGH! DAMMIT, DAMMIT, _DAMMIT!_" Catrin grabbed one of the flowerpots by the inn entrance and slammed it against one of the wooden beams that held the cave up. He kicked another across the town square, and then picked up a third and threw it on the ground. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

Elaine shrank back. "Catrin, _please _calm down-"

"SHUT UP! WE'VE BEEN ROBBED!" Catrin grabbed his shell and slammed it at the wooden pole so hard the shell cut halfway through it. "THAT FREAKING SCRAGGYY! HE STOLE THE GEMS! I'LL KILL THAT BASTARD!"

They were making a scene. Only a few pokemon were out now, but all of them did _not _look happy to see a screaming oshawott in their square. Elaine hissed. "Catrin, what are you talking about-"

"TEPIG, ARE YOU AN IDIOT?!" Elaine winced. "THE SCRAGGYY WHO BUMPED ME ON THE WAY BACK. HE STOLE THE GEMS! GODDAMN BLIGHT OF THE SUN _PICKPOCKET!_"

That's when Elaine remembered. Right, that scraggy! She hadn't thought much of him earlier, but, maybe him bumping into Catrin on such a wide road was a little strange. She was from Castelia, she knew how pickpockets worked. But he'd seemed pretty nervous. And even though people used purrloins and froakies to pickpocket back home, it felt weird to think about here.

But then, a memory hit her. The two timburr, chasing her and Catrin out of the inn. Right at this spot, Catrin had yelled at them, and then they'd spoken to Elaine.

"_Just be careful coming back from Stony Cave..."_

Oh no... OH NO! They'd known! They'd warned her! And like an idiot, she'd completely forgotten! Oh Dragon, why was she such an idiot?!

"Ugh, I'm so sorry, Catrin! I should've been more careful! I should've known something was up," Elaine groaned. Catrin shot her a sneer and said nothing, and she felt something wilt inside her. _Nice hero work, Elaine, letting the pokemon who's protecting you get robbed, even after you knew it was gonna happen. Useless._

She sighed. "If you want me to go back to Stony Cave and get more gems for you, I will."

He shook his head. "That won't be necessary, Savior." His voice was raw from screaming, but Elaine could feel the cold fury in it. He slid his cloak back over his head and pulled the hood down low over his eyes. His snarl dropped, but his face was still twisted. With rage burning in his eyes, Catrin looked ready for murder.

"We're going to catch a thief."


	7. The Dead

"Of _course_ he came into here," Catrin muttered.

"Oh. Where are we?" Elaine asked. They'd been walking for what must've been a couple hours now. Catrin had picked up the scraggy's scent off his cloak, and they'd been following the trail north ever since. Apparently, oshawotts had as good a sense of smell as herdiers? Weird. They'd gone past Stony Cave towards the dark silhouettes of the mountains that loomed in the distance.

The world was so dark and shadowy that it was hard to tell where they were going. Elaine couldn't memorize any landmarks if she couldn't see them. The halo of light her tail radiated around them was some small comfort, at least.

Elaine wasn't feeling up for chasing down a thief anymore. She was hungry, and her legs were lead. She hadn't slept since before they'd gone to Stony Cave. But apparently Catrin was running on pure bloodlust, cause it didn't seem like he was gonna stop anytime soon.

Catrin padded forward to a signpost in the ground. He squinted at it and then lifted his nose to the mountain before them. "Hazy Pass."

Elaine looked up. It was near impossible to see in the dark, but she could make out the shape of the mountain. There were a lot of flat areas cut into the incline, divided by steep cliffs, and the gaping black tunnel entrances speckled the mountainside.

"It looks more like a mine than a pass," Catrin muttered.

"What's a pass?"

He gave her a look of disappointment.

Elaine huffed. "W-well I know what a mine is! So, pokemon have mines?"

He deadpanned. "Yes. We have mines." He sniffed at the air. "But there's no one here. It's been abandoned for a long time. A perfect den for thieving bandits."

When Catrin wasn't looking, Elaine sniffed at the air too, but all she smelled was rocks and dusty wind. Did tepigs just have sucky senses of smell? How come she didn't get any heightened pokemon senses? That wasn't really fair.

"There's a chance this place could be a mystery dungeon," Catrin said. "Plenty of businesses sputtered out when the sun went dark, but the mines continued to run without it. Only when they started to become dungeons were they abandoned."

Elaine's Dumbo ears drooped. "So, maybe we shouldn't go in? If it's unsafe..."

Catrin flexed his claws. "Not without my gems." He dropped onto all fours and stalked towards the mountain.

Elaine shook her head. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought it might rip her apart from the inside out. But she glanced at her lightbulb tail and took a shaky breath. She had to be brave. They were going into a mystery dungeon, but she had to be brave. She should've realized the gems were gone. The way that scraggy had bumped into Catrin; it was so obvious! And after she'd been warned and everything. She'd gotten Catrin into this, she had to help get him out.

She headed in.

Hazy Pass (Passes were mountains, apparently. Just call it Hazy Mountain for Dragon's sake) was eerily silent. It reminded her of Post Town from the outside. It felt so still, like anything that had once lived there was long dead. Catrin's fur was puffed out like a qwilfish, and he scanned the area constantly, not looking in one place for more than a couple seconds each. Soon, they came to the edge of the mountain. There was an entrance to a cave a good ten feet above them, but between them and the entrance was a near-vertical rockface.

"I hate to be a pessimist, but I don't know how I'm gonna climb that with tepig feet," Elaine said.

Catrin opened his mouth to respond, but he closed it when the ground suddenly trembled underfoot. The ground split under their feet, and a dead tree crawled out from the crack like a galvantula. It wound its way up, twisting and spinning, and stopped right as its branches reached the cave mouth above.

Catrin blinked. "Well, that was convenient."

"Definitely a mystery dungeon then, huh?"

Catrin nodded. "Well, now we know why this place was abandoned. Come along." They started to climb up the branches of the tree.

Now, to explain something. Elaine was never really a climber. Steven was always one of those kids who spent more time off the ground than on it. He and his childhood pet sewaddle had spent their recesses up in the trees or on top of the mankey bars on the playground. Elaine had always half-wanted to join him, but climbing was hard. She always got scraped up on the tree bark, and it just wasn't that fun. It wasn't fun, specifically, with a human body.

Climbing with hooves was a thousand times worse.

She couldn't actually grip anything. This was a problem with her new body that she'd been trying to ignore since getting to this world, but halfway up a tree, it was damn impossible. She basically had to shimmy up the trunk and throw her body over each branch like a piece of wet laundry, and Catrin had to push her up from behind. "Sorry, I swear I'd do it myself if I could!" she mewled, to which Catrin kept responding, "It's not an issue, I'm happy to help the Savior," but it just kept making her feel shittier about it.

_Some Savior you are, can't even climb up a tree without help._

By the time they got up to the cave, Elaine was huffing and puffing and thoroughly hating herself. Her insides felt twisted and rotten.

Catrin scrambled up onto the rock after her and wiped off his brow with a "whew." He huffed and said, "Are we ready to proceed?"

Elaine's ears drooped. "Ah, um, sorry about that, I'm not that good at climbing," she muttered.

"It's quite alright, I don't mind assisting you." On two legs, he padded into the cave and said in a half-joking tone, "Now if only you weren't so heavy."

It was like being struck by lightning. Something snapped through her whole body, this awful, revolting feeling, like sparks of anxiety. She knew that Catrin didn't mean it like that. He was a little oshawott and she was a tepig, obviously she was bulkier and gonna be heavy to him. But it still _hurt. _She hissed silently to herself, _Ugh Elaine shut up, shut up, you're being so stupid! Obviously he didn't mean it like that!_ But she still had the overwhelming urge to claw her skin off.

"Savior." Elaine snapped out of it and looked up at Catrin, who was about ten feet ahead of her. He lifted back his hood a bit and squinted at her. "You look ill. The mystery dungeon's aura isn't affecting you negatively, is it?"

"I-I'm fine."

She could hear Steven's voice in her head, telling her to just tell him what was wrong! She had a right to not be made uncomfortable, and if Catrin had said something upsetting, she should let him know so he could avoid doing it again. But she also knew that Catrin, despite being a magically intelligent, cloak-wearing oshawott from a mystical realm where suns could disappear, reminded her far too much of people she knew back home.

So Elaine said, "I'm fine," again and padded ahead of him and shrugged off that good childhood trauma like water off her back. Giving her a weird look, Catrin padded after her.

Hazy Pass had a different feel from Stony Cave. Stony Cave was like walking through a mystical realm, like a place from Lord of the Earrings. It could be enchanting one moment, frightening the next, but all in all a fantastical experience. Hazy Pass didn't feel fantastical. It felt lonely. They walked through a single, cramped tunnel along a rusted mine cart rail. Sometimes, they had to climb over the fallen, rotten remains of wooden beams that once held up the mines, and rusted mine carts littered the tunnel. Hazy Pass reminded her of the old, faded toys left behind at the playground in Castelia Park, or the worn, faded sweatshirts in the school lost and found, things that had once belonged to kids who'd since grown up, now just belonging to the universe. Hazy Pass was melancholy... Yeah, that was a good word. Melancholy. The whole place sighed sadly.

The tunnel groaned around them. Another tunnel opened up just to their right, with another old railroad trailing into the dark. Catrin grimaced at the sight of the place moving, but Elaine didn't mind it so much. It kind of felt like Hazy Pass was trying to speak to them.

"I think we should go this way," Elaine suggested, pointing her hoof down the new path. Catrin didn't argue, probably because she was the "Savior," and so she led the way forward. Sure enough, the passage led them straight to a flight of stairs, and those stairs led them out into the open.

"We're higher up now!" Elaine said. They were now a good two or three levels up the mountainside. They'd only climbed high enough to be one level up, but mystery dungeons didn't make sense, anyways. The Lost had shaken her so much in Stony Cave that she'd forgotten how bizarre and mystical these places were, but it really was kind of enchanting.

Once Catrin was out on the open rock with her, he sniffed at the air. "Scraggy passed through here. We're going the right way." He sniffed again and looked upwards, towards the mountain's peak. "I suspect he's headed towards the peak. The top or bottom of a mystery dungeon is often the easiest location to meet someone. There may be others involved in this, perhaps some lowlife thug he's going to pawn the jewels off to."

"Okay, great, that means we can still catch him. And then we'll get that house!" said Elaine.

Catrin's looked like he'd shoved a lemon wedge in his mouth. Before he could respond, they heard sudden a gasp behind them, and Elaine and Catrin whirled around to see a Lost. Elaine's heart leaped up her throat at the sight of an audino, its pink fur so faded it looked like it'd crawled out of a grayscale movie, its blue eyes vacant and wide as two full moons. Elaine scrambled back, but Catrin just grabbed his shell off his chest and leered forward. "Damn bandits. This damn world. Two mystery dungeons and all this mess just to put a roof over my head."

Elaine said nothing. The audino let out a wheeze and lurched towards Catrin, but he wasn't even fazed. "I did not want to be _chasing bandits across the countryside today! _And I did not want to be FIGHTING LOST!" He sprang at the audino with fangs bared. It let out a breathy gasp as he grabbed it with his claws and slammed it into the dust. He pinned it down as it gasped pathetically, raised his shell with both paws, and-

_Thunk._

Elaine winced. Black blood pooled across the sand, and she had to turn away. As Catrin kicked the audino away from him and padded back over to her, she mumbled, "Did you have to do that?"

"I am not in the mood to run around in circles trying to spare these things right now. While we don't have a sun, they're _good as dead._" Catrin water gunned his stained paws, and they turned from black back to white. "And it helps to keep you safe."

He stormed off, but Elaine lingered for a bit. Out of the corner of her eye, she stared hard at the dead audino. Well, not that it hadn't been dead before, she guessed. With its throat gouged open, it looked sorta like roadkill. She was used to the sight of that in Castelia, wild purrloins and rattatas mowed over in the gutters of the road. Dead pokemon wasn't that uncommon a sight, and it was hard to still get sad about it when you saw fifteen dead rattatas a day just on the walk to school. But something about this... It just didn't seem fair. She glanced back at her glowing tail, then at the sky. And then with a sigh, she followed Catrin into the next tunnel.

They climbed higher through the mystery dungeon. Hazy Pass didn't change near as much as Stony Cave, but when it did shift, the new paths always guided them to stairwells. They didn't see many Lost, either. There was a faded gray, naked sewaddle groaning under an overturned minecart and a Lost drilbur lying at the bottom of one of the cliffs, its leg snapped. Catrin lingered a moment too long at both of them, and Elaine had a strong feeling he was considering whether to put them out of their misery. But he left them both. Elaine wasn't even sure if it was the right decision.

The stairs led them higher through Hazy Pass, and they walked in silence. She could still feel the rage radiating off Catrin like a space heater about to catch fire. Every ten minutes or so, he'd sniff around and confirm they were still on the scraggy's trail. They stuck so close to it that Elaine couldn't help but think the dungeon was _letting _them follow the thief.

Finally, the dungeon led them to a last staircase. This one instead spiraled its way up through the mountain like they were climbing a tower. Finally, they emerged out into the night, and Elaine and Catrin stepped out onto the peak of Hazy Pass.

They emerged on a small alcove at the top of the mountain, hugged by rock on three sides with an open view out before them. It was a sheltered place, definitely good for some sort of illegal meeting. Elaine glanced around. It was near impossible to make anything out in the dark, but then she spotted it: the small, thin shape of a scraggy.

Catrin spotted him, too. As soon as the oshawott's eyes fell on the scraggy, his lips curled in a snarl. He flexed his claws and moved to storm forward, but Elaine grabbed his cloak in her teeth and yanked him back.

He whirled around, giving her a _what?! _look.

"Just be patient a sec! Don't you wanna know who he's working with?" Elaine whisper-hissed.

Catrin shot her a _I hate that you're right _glare. "We hide, then," he whispered. He draped the corner of his cloak over Elaine's tail to hide the glow, and they crept out behind one of the boulders in the alcove. Thankfully, there was room enough to hide. Elaine and Catrin crouched down, and the oshawott bristled so hard he looked like a qwilfish. "When that scumbag shows up..."

The scraggy waited quietly, scuffing its foot across the ground and humming a tune weirdly close to _Oh When The Saints. _Catrin waited silent as a braviary, and Elaine tapped her hoof as quietly as possible. She had the overwhelming urge to check her phone, except her phone was sadly in another universe. She groaned just thinking about all the Dragon Rising events she must be missing. If only Steven or her sister Claire could play for her while she was world-saving; they both had their thumbprints on her phone. But if she was a missing person, she doubted that was really a priority. Damn, she was a missing person, wasn't she? Assuming time was passing in her world at the same rate as in this one. Did her family think she was dead...?

Catrin's ear flicked, and his tail shot up straight as a pole as he stared at the cave entrance. Elaine saw something shift in the dark. Someone was coming. Thank the Dragon she had literally anything else to pay attention to besides her disturbing train of thought. She and Catrin crouched down low. The darkness parted like curtains on a stage, and out stepped...

Catrin's breath hitched. "Gurdurr."

When the brick wall of a fighting-type stepped out onto the mountain, Elaine's brain broke a little. Gurdurr? _What? _Why was Gurdurr here? Didn't he work for Swanna to help protect Post Town? Wasn't he supposed to be a good person? Like one of those looks-like-an-asshole-but-will-have-your-back-when-the-going-gets-tough kinds of good people? Was it just a coincidence he was here? Or had he also found out about the thieving scraggy and was here to deliver a pummeling? This didn't make seeeeense.

Using a foot-wide copper pole as a walking stick, Gurdurr marched out into the open. Each of his footsteps was a tiny earthquake. He stopped in the center of the clearing, wiped the spittle off his bottom lip (_eww_) and grunted, "Where are you?"

"Right here!" The scraggy piped up in a whiny, high-pitched voice and scuttled out from the shadows, grinning wide. "Took ya long enough, huh, Gurdurr? Nyeeheehee."

"I'll take as long as I want." Gurdurr's voice was indistinguishable from a motorcycle revving. Everything he said was a tense, low growl, like he was on the verge of yelling at all times. "Did you get them?"

Scraggy smirked and raised a brow. "Do ya even have to ask?"

As the scraggy dug into a pouch on his side, Catrin bristled beside her. Elaine glanced over to see the oshawott was trembling with rage. His teeth were grit so tight she thought he might break his own jaw. She put a hoof down gently on the corner of his hood and held it to the ground, just to make sure he wouldn't jump out.

Scraggy pulled his hand out of the pouch and held it up high like a waiter holding up a tray. "Tada!" And sure enough, there they were. Ten sparkling, blue gems. The very ones they'd found in Stony Cave. The payment for their house.

Catrin's eye twitched.

Gurdurr plucked one of the gems up between his thumb and forefinger and held it up over his head, squinting. After a moment, he dropped his hand, and a smirk tugged at his lip. "You never fail."

"'Course not," Scraggy snickered. "So we running it again?"

"Hoping to, if the church boy can get over himself," Gurdurr muttered. "He's an annoying brat, but he wants carpentry done. And if he wants it done, he'll have to go back and get more gems. He's stubborn, so I doubt we can get more than one or two more sets. But I'll send the brats after him later to see if he'll go back."

Beside her, Catrin was a volcano ready to blow.

"What about Tepig?" Scraggy asked.

"Unimportant. Just keep an eye on Oshawott," Gurdurr said. "We can probably get a good few thousand each off that sun freak."

And the volcano blew. Catrin's body rolled in rage so hard his eyes near popped out of his skull. He bunched his legs and sprang up on top of the boulder. Elaine stumbled as he wrenched the cloak out from under her. Fur puffed out like an enraged animal, Catrin roared. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

Scraggy yelped and jumped back at the sudden roar, but Gurdurr only blinked in surprise. His face scrunched in annoyance, and he crossed his massive arms. "Good boys don't wander to places they're not supposed to be."

"YOU SCAMMED US!" Catrin screamed. "GIVE ME ONE REASON WHY I SHOULDN'T RIP OUT YOUR THROAT RIGHT NOW!"

Scraggy snickered. "Because we'd kick your heiny? You think you're gonna beat Gurdurr in a rumble? He'll break your smug lil' face!"

"Go back to town, Oshawott," Gurdurr muttered. "We're busy here."

"NO!" Catrin jumped down from the boulder and stormed towards the bandits. Realizing things might escalate any second now, Elaine quickly ran out after him. If a fight broke out, Gurdurr would snap Catrin like a twig, and that was _not _an expression. Catrin stood up as tall as his hind legs could muster, getting as much in Gurdurr's face as he could. "We didn't do ANYTHING to you! We just wanted to sleep out of the cold! WHAT IS _WRONG _WITH YOU?"

"What would Swanna say if she knew you were doing this?" Elaine whimpered. She didn't feel exactly betrayed; Gurdurr had reeked of sketchy from the moment they'd met. But, surely the beautiful head of Post Town wouldn't approve of something like this?

Gurdurr crossed his arms and stood tall. "The Signora knows."

Elaine's eyes widened. Catrin looked like he'd been struck. "Wh-what?"

"The Signora knows. I protect the town. Keep bandits out. You think she gives a shit how I make my living?" Gurdurr spat. "This isn't your chapel, sun boy. This is the real world, and if you don't like it, you can run on back to Noe Town and pray all day with the rest of those idiots."

Catrin made a sound like a cross between a growl and a screech. His knees bent, and Elaine only realized what was up a second too late. One second he was on the ground. The next, Catrin roared and flung himself at Gurdurr's face.

The fight exploded in an instant. Catrin raked his claws across the fighting-type's face, and Gurdurr roared. Immediately, Gurdurr started swinging his pipe. Catrin danced around him on light feet, dodging swings and blasting Gurdurr with water gun. Elaine leaped out of the way to avoid getting hit. Scraggy charged in, sliding under Gurdurr's legs like a baseball player and slamming Catrin in the forehead with his rock-hard skull. Catrin cried out and staggered, and Gurdurr slammed the oshawott in the stomach like he was a golf ball, sending him rocketing into the nearest rock wall. He collapsed with a grunt.

"Catrin!" Elaine cried. Gurdurr took a step towards him, but Elaine jumped in between them. _Something! I have to do SOMETHING! _She felt a familiar pain in her chest, and her lungs spasmed. Just as she jumped between her guide and the fighting-type, she sneezed out a blast of fire that jumped for Gurdurr's face. He backed up and blocked the shot with his massive arm, but Scraggy let out a gasp. "F-f-f-fire! A fire-type?!"

"Get away from him!" Elaine cried. "Please, don't hurt him, he's all I have here!"

Gurdurr's arms dropped, and his face scrunched up. But Elaine saw something else in there. His hard yellow eyes softened, just a little bit. "Human."

Elaine's eyes widened. Behind her, Catrin grunted. He was still on the floor, shaking in pain and clutching his stomach, but he grunted a few words. "H-how... How did you..."

"Quagsire told the Signora and I. Did you think the groundskeeper would keep your secrets?" Gurdurr muttered. Beside him, Scraggy looked wildly confused. "I pity you, Tepig. Dragged here on the whim of idiot sun freaks who reap money out of folks by convincing them they can be saved. You got played."

"Do NOT SPEAK TO HER LIKE THAT!" Catrin said in a strangled roar. He was still trembling, but his eyes were a raging inferno. "SHE IS HERE TO SAVE YOUR WORLD. YOU WILL TREAT HER WITH RESPECT!"

"She's not the one we're disrespectin', moron," Scraggy snickered.

Gurdurr's face twisted. He stormed past Elaine and kicked Catrin in the stomach so hard he slammed into the rock again. Catrin gasped and coughed in pain, and Elaine saw him spit up something dark that looked like blood.

"Be quiet," Gurdurr growled. "You drag a human here, show it this embarrassment of a world, all so you can keep fooling everyone that there's anything here left to save. LOOK AT THIS WORLD!" He threw his hand out, gesturing wildly at the withered landscape below. "What is left to save?!"

"I-I am..." Catrin groaned. "_You _are! The sun will-"

"The sun is not coming back." Gurdurr glanced at Elaine, who felt minuscule in his shadow. "Go home, human. Go back to whatever life you once had. You cannot bring back the dead."

And with that, Gurdurr left. He marched off without another word, into the cave and away. Scraggy snickered, grabbed a gem out of his pouch, and whisked it around teasingly. "Thanks for the dough, losers." He scrambled after Gurdurr, and silence fell on Hazy Pass.

Catrin whimpered, and Elaine remembered that _oh yeah shoot my guide just got pummeled. _She dashed to his side. "Catrin! A-are you okay?" He was cringing and gritting his teeth in pain, curled in the fetal position. He didn't respond. "A-ah, uh, I should carry you out of here, right? We should leave. We should go back to Post Town, where it's safe! Ah, is it safe to move you? Shoot, I don't know any first aid! Besides CPR! Do you need CPR? HGGH, what kind of Savior am I if I can't even help you?!"

"Tepig?"

Elaine jumped at the sudden voice. For a second, she thought Scraggy was back, but then she realized she knew that voice. It took her a second to spot it, but there it was: a timburr, peering out at her from behind another boulder.

"Timburr!" Elaine gasped, as the two timburr padded out from behind the boulder. They were the ones she'd spoken to before they left for Stony Cave. The ones who'd warned her. "Were you here the whole time?"

The taller timburr nodded. She had gentle eyes, and her fur was a bit darker than a usual timburr. The other one was short and chubby, with a brush of freckles on his nose. Both of them had copper pipes, a lot smaller than Gurdurr's. "W-we followed Gurdurr here. My brother and I are his apprentices."

"Did you know?" Elaine asked. Then, quieter, "Is that why you warned me?"

She nodded. "I'm sorry you were tricked."

"No, it's okay! I should've remembered what you said, I'm such an idiot! We wouldn't be in this mess, and Catrin wouldn't be..." She looked at Catrin again. His breathing was heavy and laced with pain. "I-I need to help him. I have to get him out of here."

The timburr both stepped over to Catrin. The boy hung back while the girl rubbed her paw over Catrin's forehead, and then she parted the coarse blue fur over his stomach. Elaine gasped at the sight. The skin of his belly was an ugly, dull purple, the same color as the sky. It was horribly bruised.

The timburr stood up. "Let us help you. My brother and I are strong, we can carry him out of the dungeon."

Every part of Elaine's soul reeled back. "No! I-I don't need help, I can do it! I'm the Savior, I have to—"

"You aren't the one who needs help, Human. Oshawott is."

Elaine fell quiet, and then she exhaled. "O-okay. Help him, please. We should get him to Quagsire, he has first aid supplies."

Timburr nodded. Gently, she picked up Catrin, and with surprising strength, the young girl threw him over her shoulders. Catrin whimpered in pain. He seemed barely conscious. As the three of them headed for the tunnel to go back down the mountain, Elaine whispered to him. "Just hang on, Catrin. We're gonna get you help, okay? I'm gonna help you."

But the words felt sour on her tongue. Gurdurr's words echoed in her head, like a grating, awful hymn.

_You cannot bring back the dead._


	8. A Promise Is Made

The trip back to Post Town was painfully slow. At the very least, Elaine was glad the timburr were here. The girl timburr—Elaine still didn't know their names—carried Catrin over her shoulders the entire way, while her little brother carried her copper pipe for her. Elaine felt horribly useless, and the wait was agonizing. Everything about tonight made her feel like shit.

Catrin was delirious. He must have hit his head on the rock, because he was slipping in and out of consciousness, cringing in pain and muttering. They walked in silence through the night, and Elaine felt like complete garbage. Her feet were lead, her body sagged with exhaustion, and her brain was an overcooked mess of depression and anxiety. Catrin had gotten screwed over again because of her. Catrin was hurt again because of her. Yeah, he could be an ass, but he was still her guide, and she was here to save him. Protect him. Protect all these pokemon.

Yet when Gurdurr had moved to kick him, she'd jumped aside. Like a coward.

"I think we're nearing Post Town," said Timburr.

"Huh? Oh." Elaine looked up from her thoughts, and sure enough, the crossroads were up ahead. "Yeah. Come with me, his land's over here." She led the timburr off the path and into the maze of red rock that made up Catrin's property. It was hard to know where she was going when every rock looked the same, but thanks to her tail light, she managed to find the den without too much difficulty.

"Just set him down here," Elaine said. Timburr walked Catrin over to the alcove and slid him off her shoulders. He mewled in protest as Timburr set him down, and Elaine grimaced.

"Maybe we should get Quagsire while you stay and watch Oshawott? You said he had the medicines, right?" Timburr asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea," Elaine nodded. The timburr started to walk off, but Elaine spoke up again. "Ah, wait! You helped me, and I don't even know your names."

Both timburr blinked at her in surprise and exchanged a strange look. The girl timburr smiled bashfully and rubbed the back of her head. "Ah, we'd rather not share if it's alright! Just Timburr is fine." Before Elaine could even understand the exchange, the girl headed off into the rock, but her brother lingered for a moment. Kneading his paws together and shuffling his foot, he looked up at Elaine bashfully and spoke for the first time in a voice like a tiny flower.

"My name's Aeddan."

Smiling, he dashed off. Elaine was still, just listening to the receding footsteps. Aeddan and Timburr, huh? She was starting to suspect there was some weird culture going on with names in this world, but she didn't have long to speculate on it. Catrin whimpered behind her, and Elaine spun around and dashed to his side.

"Catrin! Are you okay?"

Slowly, Catrin blinked his eyes awake. His face was twisted in a grimace, and he tried to sit up but hissed in pain. "Agh..."

Before she knew it, Elaine's eyes welled with tears. "Are you badly hurt? Shit, Catrin, I'm so sorry, Gurdurr ran at you, and I just-"

"Dammit."

It took her a second to realize he wasn't even listening to her. He buried his face in his paws, and his hood hung low over his eyes. She could see his teeth were grit, and his tail started to swish in agitation. "Dammit, dammit, _freaking _dammit."

Oh no. Freakout incoming. Elaine put a hoof on him. "Catrin, you gotta calm down, you're not in good enough shape to-"

_SMACK!_

Elaine reeled back when Catrin swiped at her with shocking force. The skin of her leg smarted, and she hissed in pain, but Catrin didn't spare her a glance. Shoulders heaving in boiling anger, he grabbed the shell off his chest and flung it at the nearest rock so hard it ricocheted off into the darkness. "_DAMN EVERYTHING! DAMN THIS WHOLE ROTTEN WORLD!_"

He suddenly jumped to his feet. Elaine opened her mouth to protest, but her voice died in her throat. She watched Catrin storm over to the rock he'd chucked the shell at and kick it again and again. "AAUUUGHHHH! I HATE EVERYTHING! I HATE THIS WORLD! THAT ROTTEN SCUMBAG GURDURR! HE CAN ROT FOR WHAT HE DID!"

Elaine whimpered, "Catrin, I'm mad too, but you can't-"

"_SHUT UP!_" Catrin whirled to face her, and Elaine shut her trap. But he seemed to realize he'd just screamed at the Savior, because the anger dropped off his face in place of guilt. He stood there for a long moment, silent. Elaine couldn't fathom what was running through his head. And then, he did something she hadn't expected.

He burst into tears.

A sob wracked his body, and Catrin yanked his hood low over his face and dropped to the ground. He dragged his knees up to his chest and buried his face in his arms, and he cried. For a long, quiet moment, Catrin's sobs were the only sound in the wasteland of red stone. And Elaine, watching him, felt her heart break. Yeah, Catrin was nasty, and he had a dangerous temper. But seeing him there, so small and defeated... He looked way too much like all her little siblings. Her sisters and her brother and her sibling. Small and helpless, with only Elaine to protect him. So, slowly and cautiously, she padded across the clearing and sat down next to him.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. She didn't wrap an arm around him, as much as she wanted to, but she scootched close enough so he could feel her on his side. A little touch was enough. "This is all my fault."

Through his cloak and fur, Elaine heard Catrin's voice. "I-it's... it's this whole damn world... Everything is so rotten. The sun went away, and everything turned evil..."

"Are pokemon like Gurdurr common?" Elaine asked.

Catrin didn't answer her question, which was really all the answer she needed. "I-I can't live like this, I can't..." And suddenly, he lifted up his head and grabbed onto her. It was so fast that for a second Elaine thought he was attacking her. But he crumpled at her feet, pressed against her side, and she realized he was clinging just like her little siblings. For a few moments, he just sobbed. And then he looked up at her with bloodshot eyes and a face smeared with tears. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen from Catrin, from any pokemon.

"P-please, you have to fix this, you _have to. Please fix this._"

Elaine stared at him, stunned. People asked her favors all the time. Her mom asked her to do the dishes and walk her siblings to school and pick up the groceries and water the petilil. Her dad asked her to sign up for a couple more extracurriculars and get some ACT prep in and throw a few more colleges on the to-apply list. Her siblings asked her to fix a broken toy or mediate a fight or take them to the park and help them with their chores and make them toaster waffles and change the batteries in their night lights, so they didn't have to be scared when nighttime came. Jamal asked her to hang out with the crew and hop on the computer to play Two Weeks or help him decipher his physics homework, and Steven was always asking her to shower and go to bed on time. Friend things. Oldest daughter things.

No one had ever asked her to fix the world.

But that was what she was here for, wasn't it? She'd been brought to this world to bring back the sun. To save the world from the brink of extinction. To transform it into a place where pokemon didn't have to scam and steal and look the other way and have meltdowns in the middle of the night. She'd been brought to make sure no one else died. To make this world good.

Things had been simple in her world. Things weren't so simple anymore. But she was here to save the world. For Catrin, for Quagsire, for the timburr and Gurdurr and everyone in Post Town and beyond. She had to fix this world.

And so, she looked down and Catrin and answered with all the confidence she had. "I will. I promise."

Catrin hiccuped. More tears streamed from his eyes, but they weren't angry anymore. He was utterly relieved. "Th-thank you..." His body drooped, and he slumped into her lap. It took Elaine a good few moments to realize he was asleep again.

Elaine sat quietly with him for what felt like an eternity. He was dead asleep- or unconscious, she couldn't tell. You could hear a pin drop inside her mind; she didn't think about anything. She just stroked Catrin gently with her hoof, rubbing his back the same way she would rub her sisters' backs when they had nightmares, or her sibling's back when they got bullied. She'd never felt homesick at any time in her life more than she did right then. But soon, the moment ebbed away. She heard faint voices approaching and looked up to see Aeddan and Timburr arrive with Quagsire behind them.

Quagsire looked at Elaine, then at Catrin, then back at Elaine. He crossed his arms. "Got into another scuffle, hmm?"

"Y-yeah. We're really sorry." Elaine's ears drooped. She hadn't even been the one fighting (mostly, she did blast Gurdurr with some fire), but she still felt guilty. For some reason, Quagsire wasn't a person she wanted to let down. "We got hit by a pickpocket, so we-"

Quagsire raised a flipper. "No need to explain yourselves. You seem like a respectable girl, Tepig. I trust you wouldn't let this church boy run into trouble without good reason, hmm." Elaine was quiet, and Quagsire approached them. "Now, hmm, I believe some first aid was needed, if Timburr and Timburr told me the story correctly?"

"We did, we swear!" Timburr protested. Aeddan nodded vigorously at her side.

"Yeah, they did. Thanks, Quagsire. I'll give you some space." Elaine eased Catrin off her so he slumped on the ground. She backed away as Quagsire sat down next to him and started pulling things out of his first aid pouch. She was tempted to ask if she could help, but she held off. Quagsire knew what he was doing. With the timburr at her side, she sat and watched him work, silent.

This was going to be a long night.


	9. She Won't Stand Aside

_She dreamed of a place where nothing was physical._

_She wasn't there, but she could still see it: a rainbow of pastel colors, the glittering cosmos, the light that made up everything. She breathed in the winds of all there was. The voice of life. The soul of the sun._

_There was someone else here. She couldn't see them, couldn't hear them, but she could feel them. Another presence reaching out to her, the distant echo of a fading voice._

"_H... h..."_

_Something piqued in her. She wanted to reach out to them. It was close but too far, like trying to grasp the wind. She couldn't hear! Anxiety wrenched through her like an arrowhead. The glass shattered. The voice wisped away. The lights were gone._

She woke up.

She gasped and quickly remembered that her name was Elaine. She was curled up in the den under the rock, and darkness blanketed the sky. Right away, she felt her big, floppy ears brush against the surrounding rock and her tail bounce like a spring on her back. Still a tepig, then. Still not herself. Elaine took a few deep breaths, trying to recuperate from whatever bizarre dream she'd just had. It'd only been a few seconds, but the memory of it was already slipping away. She could remember colors? Like a rainbow? That was really it.

She felt something warm against her back and lifted her head to see Catrin curled up beside her. He had his cloak over his back like a blanket, and his chest rose and fell steadily; he was fast asleep. As the last memories of her dream flickered away, she remembered what had happened last night. The confrontation with Gurdurr and Scraggy on Hazy Pass, the walk home with Timburr and Aeddan, Catrin breaking down in her lap. She remembered the promise she'd made. Her heart steeled in resolve.

Elaine sighed and let her head drop between her hooves. She didn't know how long she'd been asleep, but she didn't feel rested at all. Her head was foggy like she'd been smoki— aah, like she was dehydrated, and her stomach felt empty and sad. Not that it was a bad thing she'd broken from eating for a bit. She wanted to get up, but she felt a little too sick to make herself just yet. Maybe she could fall back asleep and get a couple more hours in?

But then she heard a shuffle somewhere out in the rocks, and her ears flicked. She'd fallen asleep before Quagsire had finished the medical care, so she didn't know what had happened to the timburr after. She'd figured they'd gone home or something, but maybe they were still around?

That, or it was a trespasser.

Frick...

Elaine got to her feet. Her legs were a little wobbly, and her head rushed like the Mr. Krabby meme. But if there was someone around and Catrin was out of commission, she had to make sure they were safe. She padded out from the den, trying to follow the source of the noise. She wound her way west around a few big rocks and came to a little, algae-choked pond under the remains of a scraggly tree. And sitting at the pond was Timburr and Aeddan.

They looked up in surprise as Elaine came around the bend, both clutching their pipes. "O-oh! Tepig, sorry, we didn't mean to intrude. We can leave if you'd like."

"Huh? No, you're fine! I was just coming to make sure you weren't anyone dangerous." Elaine cocked her head. "Can I sit with you?"

Timburr and Aeddan exchanged a glance, and then Timburr nodded. Smiling, Elaine trotted around the pond and plopped down next to them. Aeddan scootched closer to Timbur, but he didn't look nervous. He stared at her with a look of serene wonder.

Both of them were completely silent, so Elaine figured it was up to her to strike up a conversation. Ambivert powers, activate! "Soooo, you guys are Gurdurr's apprentices?"

Timburr nodded. "In carpentry, yes."

Elaine raised an eyebrow. "Do y'all learn much carpentry these days?"

Timburr looked at the ground. "No..."

"Sucks," Elaine sighed. "You guys knew Gurdurr was a crook, yeah?"

"We knew. The master was never shy to hide it. Most folks around town know, but he keeps Post Town safe, so they don't say anything," Timburr explained. "I hope you aren't angry with us..."

"Why would I be? You tried to warn me, I was just too dumb to get it. And you both probably saved Catrin," Elaine said.

Timburr and Aeddan stiffened and exchanged a weird glance. At this point, she should be used to this world's pokemon giving her weird looks at random, but it was only bugging her more. "Did I say something weird? Sorry, I'm not really from around here."

Timburr held both her paws in front of her. "Oh, no no, it's okay! It's just strange that you use Oshawott's name so casually. I don't know if he'd like it."

Elaine blinked. Timburr could have started spouting quadratic equations and she'd be less confused. "Uh, what's wrong with his name?"

"Nothing! It's a lovely name." Behind her, Aeddan snickered into his paws. "It's just not ordinary to give away a name so casually. Usually, we only tell our close friends our names, or people we trust. You wouldn't hand your deepest self to a stranger, would you?"

"I... guess not?" Elaine blinked. "In my world, it's usually the first thing you tell a person."

Timburr and Aeddan exchanged a wide-eyed glance. Both their mouths were open in an _o_ shapes. "Humans must be so trusting of one another!"

"Oh, not really! It's just not a huge deal," Elaine said. "I guess I shouldn't have told you Catrin's- Shit, uh, Oshawott's name. Sorry about that."

"We don't have to tell him we know. I think he'll be more comfortable that way," said Timburr with a polite smile.

"Makes sense, yeah!" After a small pause, she added, "But you two can call me Elaine if you want."

Aeddan smiled wide, and Timburr blinked and grinned in pleasant surprise. "We'd be honored to."

They sat quietly by the pond for a little bit. Aeddan crept closer to the pool and stirred the water with his copper pipe, giggling when he fished out chunks of hair algae. He tried to grab for some, but Timburr leaned over and smacked his paw lightly. "Don't you touch it, you'll get germs!" And he stuck his tongue out at her but listened anyway. For once, it actually seemed like a nice night.

And then that nice night ended.

"WHERE ARE MY APPRENTICES?!"

The timburr both jumped like they'd been struck by lightning, and Elaine's heart nearly burst out of her chest like an alien. Oh _shit. _Timburr gasped like the air had gotten sucked out of the room, and she clutched Aeddan and mewled, "W-we never c-came home! He must be so angry, if he finds us, h-h-he'll..." She pulled Aeddan close and shuddered.

Elaine could hear Gurdurr's thundering footsteps coming from the south. Not today, bitch. She jumped to her feet and whisper-hissed at the timburr, "Get behind that rock _now._ I'll stall!" They had no objection, and Timburr grabbed Aeddan's hand and dragged him behind the nearest boulder at a sprint. Once they were safely hidden, Elaine turned just in time to see Gurdurr come around the bend.

His squashed tomato face was twisted in a snarl, and he clutched his copper pipe so hard it was dented under his fingers. He spotted Elaine and stormed over until he stood over the pond like a colossus. Elaine's legs shook like a fennekin on a winter day, but she held her ground. She had to. She wasn't going to step aside again.

Gurdurr glowered down at her. "Where. Are. They."

Elaine blinked. "Where are who?"

"My apprentices! I know they came here! Rufflet spotted 'em!"

"Which apprentices?"

"THE TIMBURR! WHO ELSE WOULD I BE TALKING ABOUT?!" Elaine flinched at Gurdurr's roar. She winced and waited for him to club her upside the head with his pipe, but miraculously, he didn't.

"W-well, I don't know what apprentices you have! Maybe you had more than just the timburr! Maybe you had some audino working for you, too. I just wanna make sure so I don't bring you the wrong person!" Gurdurr was probably going to kill her, but honestly... this was kinda funny, so it might be worth it. No better way to go out than with a shit-eating grin, Steven always said.

Gurdurr glared at her for a few seconds, and then he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do not play dumb with me, Human. I know my apprentices are here. _Bring them to me _so I can get home and set them straight."

Elaine lifted her chin up. She was absolutely terrified, and her legs were still shaking, but she was not going to stand aside. "So again, just to make sure, you definitely _don't _have audino working for you?"

Gurdurr swung his pole at her a thousand miles an hour and clubbed her in the side. Her flank exploded in pain. She rolled into the dust, and he roared like a raging beartic. "_WHERE ARE THEY?!_"

"None of your concern."

Gurdurr and Elaine looked up to see Catrin perched on a nearby boulder. Elaine's head was spinning from that blow, but she smiled wide at the sight of her guide. The broken, crying pokemon from last night had vanished, and the snarling, fiery-eyed oshawott she knew was back. His midsection was wrapped in bandages, and he still had a couple of scrapes, but he glared down at Gurdurr with all the might of a dragon-type.

"This land is the property of the Church of the Sun. Leave the premises immediately," Catrin said in a low growl.

Gurdurr scoffed. "Who's gonna make me, you? I gave you those wounds, church boy, don't you forget it. Besides, I've a right to be here if you're stealing my workers."

"For what work? Banditry? It seems like you and Scraggy manage fine on your own," Catrin muttered. "Your presence here is a disgrace to the Savior and the Sun. Leave."

Gurdurr pointed his pole at Catrin and jutted it forward like he was about to smack the oshawott off the rock. The pole wasn't quite long enough though, and Catrin didn't flinch. "Don't you be a smartass with me, church boy. You shut your mouth and give me back my apprentices, or I will beat you out of this town myself!"

"Try your blasphemy, and the Land of No Stars will open its maw and swallow you whole." Elaine had no idea what Catrin was talking about, but she had to admit it was pretty metal. He sounded like a nature deity talking down the arrogant humans. Was this the same Catrin she'd known from earlier? "You are _not welcome here. _Get out!"

Gurdurr planted his pipe in the ground and growled, "Just try and make me." Catrin arched his back, his spiny fur fluffing out, and he got ready to spring.

"W-wait!"

Timburr and Aeddan burst into the clearing. The two of them dashed around the pond and stood face to face with Gurdurr. Aeddan cowered behind his sister, but in front of him, Timburr stood tall. Elaine could see her legs were shaking and her hands were trembling, but she held her pipe out in front of her like a shield and stared down her master.

"We're not coming back," she stuttered.

Elaine expected Gurdurr to explode, but the fact that he didn't was somehow more terrifying. His eye twitched, and he muttered, "What?"

"We're not!" Timburr cried. She grit her teeth, and her eyes flared with countless emotions Elaine couldn't begin to understand. Hurt, betrayal, anger, sadness. It was so much. "W-we're sick of this. We don't like being thieves! It was okay, back before the sun went. We were happy. You were happy! We did good work for the town, built houses and shops. But Master, we haven't built a thing in years!" Gurdurr was silent, and Timburr's adrenaline dipped a little. Her eyes widened, like she realized what she was saying and to who, but she clutched her pole tighter and kept on. "We don't wanna steal from good pokemon like Tepig. We don't want to live in fear anymore. It isn't right."

For an extended moment, everyone was silent. Elaine's entire body was tense. She held down a cough as smoke swirled in her lungs, ready to launch a blast of fire when Gurdurr swung at Timburr. Catrin was tense, with narrowed eyes, but he didn't move either. No one did. The clearing held its breath for an eternity.

And then Gurdurr said, "Fine."

Timburr blinked like she'd misheard. "Wh-what?"

"Fine. Leave. You brats cost more money to feed than you're worth." Gurdurr slung his pipe over his shoulder and turned to go. He started to stomp away, but before he went, he turned back. "See who else'll give you food and a roof in a world like this, Deryn. Good-for-nothing." He stomped away, and he was gone.

The timburr- Deryn- stood there stunned, wide-eyed and frozen in place, while Aeddan wrang his fingers through hers and said nothing. Catrin stared after Gurdurr with a nasty scowl on his face. "What an ass." He then glanced at Elaine and realized for the first time that she was on the ground. His eyes stretched wide, and he sprang over to her. "Savior! Did he harm you? If he did, I _swear by the Sun-_"

"No need to swear to anything! I'm alright, he just... gave me a little smack." Elaine tried to get to her feet, but she hissed when her side bloomed in pain. _OW, _that HURT! She'd never been in any fights before, so her pain tolerance was pretty much next to none. She always used to rap along to songs about gang violence and drugs, but the second she got on her period, she was chugging a dozen ibuprofen a day. Thus, getting hit by a pole from a guy who could probably bench press a school bus? Not a good feel.

Catrin put his arms under her and helped her up to her feet. "Savior, I'm so sorry, I should've gotten here earlier."

"It's fine! I had it handled," Elaine said. Her side still hurt like a bitch and was definitely gonna bruise, but she put those feelings aside for now. Channeling the power of gangster rap, she limped over to the timburr. "Are you guys okay?"

Deryn, who hadn't blinked in all that time, finally seemed to wake from her trance. She glanced from Elaine to Catrin to Aeddan and rubbed the back of her head. "I-I..." She sniffed.

"I'm sorry about what happened. It seems like you and Gurdurr were together for a long time, yeah? Even if he changed, it's hard not to wish things can go back to normal. I'm sorry you had to give up," Elaine murmured.

Deryn was quiet for a long moment, wringing her paws together. Elaine waited patiently, knowing she'd need a second or two to stabilize. But to her surprise, it wasn't Deryn who spoke up first.

"He was stinky," Aeddan said, sticking out his tongue.

Deryn gasped. "T-Timburr! You shouldn't speak about the master like that!"

"He's not our master anymore!" Aeddan sang. He skipped away from Deryn and over to Elaine. Before she knew it, Aeddan wrapped his arms around her neck in a big hug. "Thanks for protecting us, Savior!"

Elaine was stunned, but her surprise didn't last long. Warmth like a fireplace filled her whole heart, and she wrapped her arms around Aeddan and twirled him. "No problem! It's what I'm here for!" she laughed. "But I didn't do much. You guys protected yourselves."

Aeddan laughed. Once Elaine set him down, his smile fell away for a moment as he turned to Deryn. "But, where are we gonna live now?"

Deryn was silent. She looked at her feet, and Elaine realized she didn't have an answer. The warmth in her chest turned cold. Shoot. Getting away from assholes was a good thing, but there wasn't always another place to go. Maybe she should talk to Swanna about it? There might be a spare room hiding in Post Town?

But then, Catrin spoke up. "How good are your carpentry skills?"

Deryn blinked in surprise. "Ah, well, it's been some time, but we helped the master with all sorts of projects when we had the sun. Houses, shops, buildings. We did the beams in the Signora's inn."

Catrin stood up on his hind legs and padded a few feet away, his back to them. "Are you able to construct, say, a house?"  
A small grin tugged at Deryn's lips. She exchanged a glance with Aeddan. "It's possible? It may not be very fetching. We're out of practice, and we'd need the materials. But it's certainly possible."

"I see..." Catrin said. He flicked his big, fluffy tail and turned to the timburr, standing tall. "I did not come to this town of my own volition, Timburr. I was sent by the Church of the Sun to build a sanctuary. Outlaws and bandits are an inescapable presence in the world these days, and the numbers of honest pokemon grow thin. I was sent here to create a place where honest pokemon can come to seek shelter, protection, and sustenance." He paused for a moment to take a look at the dry, dusty rock around him. "But I see now why this land was cheap. It's practically unusable. There's hardly room for a single house, let alone the space we'd need to set up shelter and medical tents, grow food, and open shops. I need a team of carpenters who can help me mold this land into something the Church will call a sufficient sanctuary. Then, once I find someone new to run it, I can go home to Noe Town."

Elaine blinked. They were here to build a sanctuary? She hadn't known that, right? Catrin hadn't told her? The concept definitely didn't sound familiar. She was surprised, since Catrin really didn't seem like the sort to build a place like this. Weird choice on the Church's part. But all in all, what a fascinating idea! Her heart raced with excitement, just thinking about the idea of actually building something! Making a difference!

Catrin turned to look at the timburr. "I can't promise you money, but work for me, and I can provide food, shelter and protection. I imagine this is a deal you will accept. After all, you orchestrated the events of the past few hours to come to this, did you not?"

Elaine blinked. Wait, what? The timburr, orchestrating this? No way! Ugh, Catrin could really be the worst sometimes. She started to speak up, "Catrin, that's really unfair..."

However, Elaine trailed off when she saw the timburr from the corner of her eye. Aeddan just looked confused, glancing wildly between his sister and Catrin. But Deryn was silent as stone, wringing her fingers together and scuffing her foot against the ground.

Catrin looked down at her with a look of tired, quiet contempt. "No pokemon does another a favor without seeking something in return. You carried me back to Post Town to put me in your debt. Church members are known for giving assistance to those who need it, hence why you targeted me in the first place. But the rescue from Hazy Pass was to ensure I couldn't refuse you. After all, I'm not so generous as my peers."

Deryn was silent for what felt like a decade. Elaine held her breath the entire time. But finally, she met Catrin's eye with a strong look. "You've seen through me, Oshawott." She gripped her pole so hard that her hand white-knuckled. "B-but I didn't do it just to use you! Gurdurr was-"

"Spare me your excuses. I'm not interested." Catrin waved her off with his tail. Pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing, he looked like he hadn't slept in a week. "You find yourself in fortunate circumstances, Timburr. Our needs align, and I recognize that your previous circumstances were... not ideal for children. So, I will overlook this. But I expect honesty from here on out. This land may not look it, but it's a holy place. I ask you not to desecrate it, or the Savior's presence. If you can do that, I'll hire you. What do you say?"

Deryn's features relaxed as she breathed out the anxiety she must've been holding. Elaine did the same; she'd been convinced for a moment there that Catrin was gonna send them packing. Deryn gave a hopeful smile and held out a paw. "I'm sorry we had to meet under these circumstances. We'd be honored to work for you, Oshawott."

Elaine thought he would have been angry, or annoyed at the least. But Catrin just looked tired as he shook Deryn's paw. "Then we have a deal."

Elaine was still for a moment. This was pretty weird. Though Catrin had seemed to shrug off Deryn's manipulation, Elaine couldn't help but feel stung. Her time with the timburr, the acts she'd thought had been selfless, they all felt tainted now. Deryn could've just been honest with her from the start! She could've talked to Catrin, she could've figured something out! But if Catrin was letting it go, she supposed she should, too? Even if they'd come together like this, maybe they could make something good out of it. So, she swallowed her misgivings and buried them under a boatload of optimism.

"Woohoo! Friendship!" Elaine cheered. She skipped excitedly around them. Catrin just stared at her, and Deryn giggled into her paws, but Aeddan dashed out as well. "Friendship!" he cheered.

"Alright, enough yelling." Catrin shook his head. "I believe I have enough money left in our budget to afford the materials for a house or two, at least. It'll be cheap, but it's better than sleeping under rocks. When are you ready to start?"

"Right away, sir!" Deryn said with a salute.

Catrin's ears flicked up. "Excellent," he said. "Then let's get to work."


	10. The All-Powerful Savior

"Now, this is more like it."

Catrin and Elaine sat side by side against a boulder, watching the timburr work. Elaine had to admit, for little pokemon, they were impressive! Deryn was organizing materials they'd bought in town, piles of stone and buckets of cement and paint, while Aeddan ran around clearing land. The kid was apparently a lot more, er, energetic than his first impression gave off. He was running around the clearing, punching boulders into oblivion with fighting-type moves and laughing with glee. Even Deryn was managing a smile. Apparently, these timburr were at their happiest when building!

Catrin sighed and leaned back. Elaine could still see a twinge of unhappiness in his eyes; he was still bothered from the timburr's revelation, no doubt. But for once, it seemed like he was keen to leave this mess behind him, and Elaine had no plans on ruining that by bringing up Deryn's manipulation again. "We'll have a roof over our heads, and I'm finally starting to make progress on this sanctuary thing. Took long enough."

"It'll be nice to have somewhere warm to sleep! Maybe if we had a fireplace, I could make fires?" Elaine suggested with a big grin.

Catrin's ears, which had been drooping, flicked up as he looked at her. "It is definitely handy that you became a fire-type. You're probably the only one in the world."

"I'm a special girl," Elaine said, wagging her tail. She didn't know why she was getting the urge to shake her butt just 'cause she was in a good mood. She'd mull that over later. "So uh, tell me more about this sanctuary stuff. I don't think you ever mentioned it before?"

Catrin raised a brow at her. "Why did you think I was purchasing the land?"

She shrugged. "I-I don't know! That's just a thing people do!" He looked away from her, so she prodded his arm with her hoof. "Come on, tell me! I'm a part of this, too, aren't I?"

Catrin nodded. "Yes, yes, you're right. I apologize for being evasive, Savior." He dusted himself off, adjusted his cloak, and explained. "When the sun went dark, the land became lawless very quickly. The Church lost control of a lot of the populace, so there was little they could do in the way of enforcing laws. So instead, they began to build sanctuaries: places across the continent that serve and protect honest pokemon. They provide shelter, food, protection, medical services, anything pokemon may need in a world like this."

"Sounds amazing. Like Pink Cross!" Elaine said.

Catrin shrugged. "I suppose, if you believe it's effective to treat the symptoms rather than the disease. Regardless, it's what my church does. I was sent to establish a sanctuary in the far north. However, I did not expect my coming here to coincide with the arrival of the Savior." He glanced her way, and Elaine squirmed. He was staring at her tail with an unreadable expression. "I didn't want to come here regardless, but now that I am your pokemon guide, the sanctuary feels like... a distraction. I don't know."

He curled his tail around himself, and Elaine frowned. She had to admit, he had a point. If she and Catrin were supposed to save the world, everything else felt kinda inconsequential. Hopefully, the world wouldn't need these sanctuary things once the sun was back. Hopefully. But...

"Well, when it comes to the world-saving, uh... I gotta admit, I'm not really sure where to start." Her Dumbo ears drooped.

Catrin's shoulders hunched, and after a long pause, he murmured, "Me too..."

"Does the prophecy, uh, say anything about what we're supposed to do?"

"I'm supposed to guide you," Catrin said, "But other than that, I'm not sure. I was always under the impression that your journey is meant to find you, not the other way around, but I'm not sure that makes a lot of sense. Maybe at some point, something will call you?" He groaned and pulled his hood down over his eyes. "I apologize, Savior, my guidance is really unhelpful in this regard."

"Hey, it's okay! We're both new at this," Elaine said. "Maybe in the meantime, let's just focus on this? You don't wanna neglect your missionary stuff, and I think it'd be good to help out how I can before my, uh, journey calls us. We could probably make something really cool."

Catrin nodded and swished his tail. "If this is your instinct, Savior, it's wise to follow it. I will gladly build a sanctuary if someone such as yourself endorses it. I believe when word gets out that the Savior is here, pokemon will come from all over to make use of our sanctuary!"

"A-ah..." Elaine sputtered, and Catrin glanced at her and pricked his ears. "Maybe we, uh, shouldn't keep telling people who I am?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Why not?"

"C-cause, maybe it would attract bad attention? And, I dunno, it makes me feel weird! I just want a little privacy. For now." Catrin continued to stare at her, and she felt her skin crawl under his gaze. "I-it's like the name thing. You pokemon don't tell each other your names right away 'cause it's private, right? Well, the savior stuff is like that to me. Private." She coughed. "If that makes sense."

Catrin stared at her hard for another moment, and then he gave an exasperated sigh that sounded a bit like a groan. "Very well, Savior. Your wish is my command."

Catrin got up and padded over to Deryn. The two of them began to talk, but Elaine didn't listen in. She had a sour taste in her mouth. Whether she liked it or not, she and Catrin were partners in whatever this was to the bitter end. She knew it was silly to get upset since Catrin _had _agreed to keep her privacy, but...

Ugh. Enough angst, Elaine, get over it.

She got to her feet and trotted over to Catrin and Deryn. She heard something about materials and gold before she butted her big tepig snoot into the conversation. "Hey y'all! What're we talking about?"

Deryn blinked in surprise. "O-oh, hello, Tepig! I was just telling Oshawott about, ah..."

"We've come to realize our budget is smaller than we anticipated." Catrin crossed his arms and sighed. "According to Timburr, we only have enough materials for single house. And the budget I received from the Church is already exhausted."

Deryn nodded and held her pipe in both hands. "Yes. That."

"Oh. Well, that's not good," Elaine said. "Anything we can do about it? Maybe we could find work in town?"

"I have something like that in mind," Catrin sighed. "Most towns have job bulletin boards for local pokemon who need help. The only problem is these jobs often require entering mystery dungeons."

"Frightful places," Deryn whimpered with a nervous smile.

"Oh, well then just send me! I don't got a problem with mystery dungeons," Elaine shrugged.

Deryn gasped and cupped her cheeks. Her eyes were sparkling with a look that could only be read as _So brave! _Meanwhile, Catrin looked like Elaine just said she'd happily walk off a cliff. "Savior, don't be foolish. You are _not _going into a dungeon alone. Let's go check the bulletin board together. See what postings are there."

"Sounds good!"

Catrin padded off towards town, and Elaine said, "See you later, Timburr!" to Deryn before galloping after him. Since Gurdurr had revealed it, Elaine was always tempted to use Deryn's name now. Calling her Timburr felt kinda awkward. But she was trying to be mindful to the culture here. She didn't think Deryn would be comfortable with that, and in fact, it seemed pretty assholish of Gurdurr to just drop her name in a room full of strangers. But, the past was in the past.

Catrin and Elaine padded through the red, rocky maze of their property, passed Quagsire's house (he wasn't home, which made Elaine frown), and walked through the crossroads into Post Town. As soon as they came through the big, wooden arch, Catrin said, "Ah, there," and pointed to an old, rickety bulletin board next to the kecleon shop. There weren't a lot of townsfolk out today, just the shopkeeps at their shops and a lillipup and swadloon (again without the leaf clothes, it was _weird_) chasing each other and laughing in the square. It was the most wholesome thing Elaine had seen in days. They padded straight up to the board, and Elaine angled her tail so they could read the fliers. The board was so overstuffed that there were a dozen or so papers pinned on each tack. Some had even been ripped down and were crumpled on the ground.

"Does this board get checked a lot?"

"I doubt it. These boards used to mainly be frequented by rescue and exploration teams, but HAPPI fell apart a year or two after the sun went. Only the desperate take these jobs." He spat the last sentence and glared at the board like it had called his mom fat. "Now, which should we take...?"

Elaine looked over the board. All the fliers were written in those swirling, squiggly letters that she still couldn't read. She kinda wished she had automatic translation powers like the TARDIS had (shut up, she hadn't watched an episode of Doctor Why since middle school, it was a _PHASE_). However, one flier drew her eye. It didn't have an illustration like a lot of the others, but there was something about the letters. They were jagged and wild, like they'd been written in a panic. Something about it made her heart pound.

She pulled it down with her teeth (which was weirdly starting to feel natural) and handed it to Catrin. "Can you read this?" she said through the paper.

Catrin took the letter from her and held it out before his nose in his webbed fingers. He squinted and cleared his throat. "_Dear heroes, Please help me, I'm lost! I went to Stompstump Peak, I didn't think it'd be this hard. I just wanted the treasure, but... I can't find my way out! I don't have many supplies. Please come help! -Dunsparce._" Catrin narrowed his eyes at the bottom of the page. "There's no reward listed."

"I think we should go."

Catrin gave Elaine a weird look. "Why? Just sounds like some idiot kid who planted more than he could water."

"Well, they're in trouble! I want to help them," Elaine said.

Catrin stared at her for a long moment and then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Savior, I implore you. We need to raise money to buy materials for the sanctuary. If we run off trying to rescue every idiot child who stumbles into a mystery dungeon, it'll be decades before we build a proper sanctuary!"

With a grin, Elaine took the paper back from Catrin and trotted off. "Well, _I'm_ the Savior, and I say we should go." She smiled innocently.

Catrin stared at her for a long time. His expression was exasperated as all hell, and she watched him physically clench his jaw to stop himself from shouting at her. He took in a shaky breath, exhaled, and then stormed up to her. "_Fine._"

"Glad you agree!" Elaine trotted off out of Post Town, and Catrin followed her with a sour expression. Funny enough, she couldn't bring herself to care. If Catrin wanted to treat her like the All-Powerful Savior, it was his bed to lie on. Stompstump Peak, here she came!


	11. A Little Bit of Love

"Oh, hey! This place is actually pretty nice?"

The statement came out as a question, 'cause up till now, Elaine hadn't seen anything she'd describe as "pretty nice" in this world. But when she and Catrin arrived at Stompstump Peak, she had to admit that this fit the description. The mystery dungeon was three-peaked, rocky hill with waterfalls flowing down from the highest, centermost peak. The waterfalls slid down to the two lower peaks, pooling briefly before flowing to the ground. The streams joined into a single river that wove off to the southwest. The cool spray flowed through her hair, cleared her lungs, and watered her crops. It was lovely! Almost lovely enough to offset the unsettling waves the mystery dungeon gave off.

Catrin stared at it for a long time with narrowed eyes. "For a mystery dungeon, it's actually quite stable. Most of them can't maintain streams." He padded forward and dipped into the water. "Let's check the central cave first."

Elaine padded up to the water, but as soon as her hoof touched the stream, she jolted back. "Agh! What the hell?!"

Catrin, who was already halfway across the river, whirled around at Elaine's cry. "What is it? What's wrong?!"

"Ah, sorry, nothing! The water just... burned me?" She shook off her hoof and stuck it on her mouth for a moment before realizing she was licking her wounds like a pokemon and awkwardly pulled it back out.

The gears turned in Catrin's head for a second before he hissed. "Damn. I apologize, Savior, I forgot the water is too cold for fire-types."

"Too cold?" Elaine blinked.

Catrin flipped around and floated on his back with his paws tucked on his belly, and Elaine nearly died on the spot. Holy shit, he was _doing the oshawott thing! He was doing the oshawott thing where they float on their backs! IT WAS SO FLIPPING CUTE! _

"Fire-types are susceptible to extreme cold. Without sunlight, the water in this world is hardly short of freezing. You won't be able to touch it for long."

"O-oh. Yeah, sucks." Oh Dragon, oh Dragon, oh dragon, Catrin was _flipping adorable!_

"Our new plan should be to investigate the smaller caves first and see if we can find a way to get you over to the central cave for further searching."

"Cool. Let's get going, then!" Elaine turned and started to pad off, but she heard nothing but burbling water behind her and turned to see Catrin hadn't moved. He was still floating in the water, rocking slightly like a boat. "Uhh... you coming?"

"Just a moment." After a pause, Catrin flipped over and disappeared underwater. Elaine hurried over to the river's edge. Had he found something down there? Like a wishing coin? Or a dead body? But she squinted to see Catrin was just swimming around in circles, and when he breached the surface again, he sighed contentedly and actually _smiled._

He brushed the wet fur out of his eyes and promptly realized Elaine was staring at him. "Er... Apologies. The water is, erm, good for sore muscles." He clambered out of the water, shook his fur out like a lillipup, and padded upstream on all fours. "Come along, Savior."

Elaine stared after him with a smile before trotting after him. What a good, swimmy boy!

They followed the right-side stream to the base of the hill, where the water spilled down the rockface and blasted upon the stones. There was a small cave mouth just to the left of it. Stompstump Peak had a fainter aura than Stony Cave and Hazy Pass, but she still started to feel it: that wrongness emanating from the cave, the sense of a break in the universe's code. She was starting to get used to it a little more, and this dungeon was less intense than others, but it still made her skin crawl.

"Stay close to me," Catrin said. He dropped on all fours and padded into the cave, and Elaine followed after him.

The soft light of Elaine's tail revealed that the cave they entered was surprisingly beautiful. The roar of the waterfall echoed faintly through the rock like a distant purr. Water droplets _plink plonk'_d on puddles strewn across the floor, and the air was wet and heavy like a Castelia summer day. The shine of her tail left bright white streaks where it hit the wet rock.

"It's like a waterfall cave. This place is cool!" Elaine said. "Once, Jamal and I were playing _Two Weeks, _and we found this really cool cave behind a waterfall on the Vivid Bells map. We got a bunch of cool skins in there!"

"Yeah, I have no idea what that means," Catrin muttered in a voice that suggested he wasn't listening. He sniffed at the air, ears erect, eyes alert, tail raised straight in the air. "I don't smell any pokemon."

"Good! That means we won't run into any Lost," Elaine said. She swallowed her hurt feelings from Catrin ignoring her. He was a pokemon; had she really expected him to understand anything about video games?

"It's possible. Lost don't leave much of a scent, however, so keep your guard up. We'll investigate the rest of this cave."

With Catrin in the lead, the two of them walked cautiously through the cave. The only sounds were the plopping and sloshing of their feet through the puddles and the distant purr of the waterfall outside. With the knowledge that only a Lost could have come through before them, Elaine's body was tense like a wound-up spring, ready to jump at the slightest movement, and a puff of smoke fell out of her nose at every breath. No way was anyone gonna get the jump on her!

At the other side of the cavern, they came to a staircase leading up into the mountain. "Well, that was quick," said Elaine.

"At least we can trust the stairs," Catrin muttered. He led the way up, and Elaine followed him carefully on her hooves. She nearly slipped on the wet staircase at every step, but she went slowly and cautiously and managed not to fall too far behind Catrin. A faint wisp of light appeared ahead in the dark tunnel, and they emerged on the peak of the left hill.

Piles of wet rock and boulders surrounded the exit of the cave on all sides. The waterfall cascading from the tallest peak splashed all across the rocks, and the touch of the spray sent waves of revulsion through Elaine's body. "Agh, come on! Why with the water, it's so coooooold!" She scampered out of the way and ducked behind a boulder. It shielded her from the spray at least somewhat, so she poked her head back out to Catrin, who hadn't moved. "See anyone up here?"

Catrin, who'd just been staring at her, looked around and took a few quick sniffs at the air. "No. There's nothing up here. A waste of time."

Elaine frowned. Well, it'd been worth it to check, hadn't it? Dunsparce could've been up here for all they knew! She took one last look around at the peak of the hill, the water spraying over the rocks like a rainfall. Catrin was already halfway back into the tunnel. Elaine got out from behind the boulder and moved quickly to follow him, trying not to get sprayed again, but suddenly stopped.

She'd only seen it out of the corner of her eye. It was easy to miss-see in this dark, bleak world where her tail was the only light source for miles. But leaning close, eyes narrowed, she realized what she'd seen: an ear twitch. There was a silhouette hidden just by the roaring waterfall, almost still as stone. The shadow of a pokemon.

Terror spiked through Elaine. She reeled back and screamed. "CATRIN! A Lost!"

Catrin immediately flew back into the open, fur puffed out like an angry dog. He followed Elaine's gaze and in a microsecond blasted a water gun towards the shadow. Elaine expected to hear the _thunk _of the water connecting with its target, but to her shock, the pokemon dodged into the air with lightning speed.

And to her further surprise, the pokemon spoke. Not in whispered, ragged gasps, but a real, proper voice. "Whoa there! Isn't someone a little trigger happy!"

Elaine sighed. "Oh, thank the Dragon! It's not a Lost."

Catrin, however, didn't look at all relieved. He was tense, crouching on all fours and snarling. "Whoever you are, come down here this instant! I will fire again!"

To Elaine's surprise, the pokemon didn't come down. It opened what looked like wings and started to glide above them, frustratingly out of the reach of her light. It had a more masculine voice, a bit high-pitched and nasally like the voice effects from Arvin and the Pachirisus, but (thankfully) less migraine-inducing. "And why should I? You look a lil' wound up, Oshawott! I'm already wet from the waterfall, I don't wanna get soaked even more!" The pokemon let out a chattering laugh.

Catrin snarled, and in response, he blasted another water gun. The pokemon had been gliding so lazily that Elaine was surprised to see him dodge like a bullet. "Psh, you asked for it!" Harsh white light sparked around the pokemon, and he launched a shot of electricity at Catrin. It was fast, _way _too fast for anything to dodge, and the attack connected with Catrin's back. He let out a cry and sprang back, and a tiny crack followed the blast like miniature thunder.

"Don'tcha know water and lightning don't mix? Eheheheheh!"

As the pokemon tucked in his wings and lighted down, Elaine's eyes widened. She thought she'd seen it, for a split second when the lightning struck, but she couldn't have been sure. But as the pokemon gently glided down into her ring of light, he came properly into view, and it was none other than-

"An emolga!" Elaine couldn't help it; she smiled! She smiled wide, and her heart bloomed! Every region in the world had its mascots. Most went by their starters, but plenty of regions celebrated their native electric rodent as well. Emolgas were practically THE Unovan pokemon. Seeing a piece of home, so far from home, Elaine couldn't help it. Happy tears pricked at her eyes.

"At your service," Emolga said with a flashy grin. He had a pink-white band wrapped around his forehead just under his ears, tied in the back with the loose ends flowing out behind him. He almost looked like a martial artist, which was absolutely adorable considering the pokemon was only half Catrin's size! His fur was somewhat ragged, a pretty common trait in the pokemon of this world, but there was something different about him. His eyes glittered, free from the tiredness and sadness worn by so many in this world. This emolga looked alive.

Catrin stormed forward, snarling like a menace. His cloak was singed where Emolga had hit him. "What the HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! You could've hurt me!"

Catrin towered over the other pokemon, but Emolga carried himself like Catrin was a cutiefly challenging him rather than an oshawott. "Maybe next time, don't blast water at pokemon you don't know? Eheheheh."

"YOU COULD'VE BEEN A LOST!" Catrin raged. "MAYBE DON'T SKULK IN THE SHADOWS LIKE SOME SORT OF CRIMINAL!"

"And maybe don't attack people like some sort of criminal!" With a big smile, Emolga reached out a paw and tapped Catrin on the nose. "Boop!"

Catrin growled like a lawn mower and raised his claws to attack again, but Elaine butted in between them. No way was she going to let Catrin ruin an interaction with such a lovable pokemon. "Alright, no more fighting! Let's save our energy for the actual Lost we may have to fight here."

"Stompstump Peak hasn't been a dungeon long. No Lost here!" Emolga said with a big grin. Then, his grin fell away somewhat, and he scratched his ear. "I hope, at least. Hey uh, have you guys seen a dunsparce around here? Little guy, kinda doofy looking?"

Elaine blinked in surprise, and she and Catrin exchanged glances. "Are you looking for Dunsparce? We are, too! We found a job posting for it in Post Town."

Emolga grinned wide. "Oh! Oh, sweet! Hey, if we're all here doing the same job, wanna look together? Your tail light would be a big help, Tepig!"

Catrin snarled. "Absolutely n-"

"Yes! We'd love to!" Elaine pushed Catrin behind her and beamed down at Emolga. This was the best thing that had happened to her since getting here!

Emolga grinned as well. "Sweet!"

Catrin butt his way past Elaine, still snarling like a menace. "Exc_use_ me! I don't believe I quite approve of this! This emolga is _annoying_, and quite frankly, I don't trust any pokemon who skulks around a mystery dungeon like a criminal. He might be the reason Dunsparce is missing in the first place!"

Emolga puffed out his lip at that, but Elaine groaned before he could respond. "Come oooooonnn, Catrin, it'll be fine! It'll be easier if we all work together!"

Elaine had meant her words to be comforting, but Catrin suddenly glared at her with wild eyes, and his lips curled back in a snarl. She backed up quickly, not understanding what she'd done to make her guide snarl at her like she was the next pokemon he was gonna rip apart! But then, it hit her.

Oh. Oh no. She'd said his name. In front of a stranger.

Elaine sucked in a breath and started to say, "Shit, Oshawott, I'm so-" But Emolga started to giggle, cutting her off.

Catrin and Elaine both looked at Emolga, who was near beside himself in laughter. He clutched his stomach with his small, pink paws, laughing like a madman. "Ahahahahahahaha! Oh my Sun, AhahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA! Your name is _Catrin?! _THAT'S A GIRL'S NAME!"

Emolga doubled over in a fit of laughter, falling onto his back and kicking at the air with his feet. Unfortunately for Elaine, Emolga's laughter was contagious, and she couldn't help a couple giggles herself. The idea of her protective, temperamental guide having a girl's name… Pfffffft. But, she still felt awful. This was the third pokemon she'd now outed Catrin's name to, which she knew was not an okay thing at all. As Emolga laughed, she shot Catrin an apologetic smile. But he just shot her the nastiest of looks and turned away.

Catrin smacked Emolga on the ear, making him yelp and cutting off his laughter. "If you're quite finished, _Emolga, _I'd prefer to get going. We'll all be Lost before you shut the hell up. Are we searching for Dunsparce together or not?!"

Still snickering, Emolga hopped back up to his feet, wiped some tears from his eyes, and gave Catrin a pat on the shoulder. "Yeah, yeah, girly, sure we can. Let's get going, y'all! Dunsparce has been here a while, we wanna rescue him quick!" Emolga leaped up and sprang off the top of the hill, gliding down towards the ground by the river. "Let's check the other small hill next!"

Catrin stared after him, still bearing his teeth. "What a rotten fiend. Stalling for Sun knows how long and then hurrying _us._" He shot Elaine another look.

Elaine's lip quivered. She felt rotten inside; not even an emolga's presence was boosting her spirits now. "Catrin, I-"

"It's fine," Catrin spat. He padded away and muttered, "Just don't do it again, please," before slipping down into the tunnel.

Elaine lingered for a moment and let out a sigh. Why was she always doing this? Why was she always letting down her guide, failing to protect him, and getting him hurt in more ways than one? With the two of them unsure how to progress on saving the world, she quite literally had one responsibility for the moment, and that was Catrin.

If this was how badly she botched protecting him, she couldn't wait to see how badly she was gonna fuck up saving the world.

"Hey Tepiiiiiig! You aren't paralyzed, are you? Come on down here!"

"O-oh!" Elaine woke up from her thoughts to see Catrin had already met Emolga at the bottom of the hill. "Sorry! Coming!" She slipped into the tunnel, glad to be away from the freezing spray, and dashed all the way down the stairs and out to meet with the group. Emolga's grin was bright as a flash of lightning. Catrin's face was sour.

"Alrighty, gang! Let's move!" Emolga did a little jump in the air and glided towards the other hill. Elaine hurried after him with Catrin taking up the rear. "Hehe, we're like an old-school rescue team! This is gonna be fun!"

They searched the dungeon with Emolga for some time. They first attempted to investigate the right hill, though it took two tries, seeing as the dungeon somehow misdirected them back to the first hill as soon as they stepped into the second. Elaine's brain had nearly broken from confusion when they'd entered the right hill and somehow come out on top of the left, and Catrin raged for a moment about "freaking mystery dungeons" before Emolga's teasing redirected his anger once again. Elaine had to admit that Emolga's cheer was rubbing off on her. He had an attitude like nothing could go wrong, and every misstep they took was just a part of the fun! After having been in this world for what felt like days (she couldn't tell how long it'd actually been), that sort of spirit both felt oddly alien and incredibly contagious!

The second time they tried to enter the right hill, they succeeded and made their way to its peak. There was nothing up there but piles of stones and a couple of old, rotting logs. No Lost, thankfully, but no Dunsparce either.

"At this point, I'm wondering if this dunsparce is invisible," Catrin muttered as he finished checking the hilltop. "Savior, I implore you. This is a waste of time. We should go and earn ourselves some actual pay so the timburr can continue the construction of the sanctuary."

"But Dunsparce is still in trouble!" Elaine whimpered.

Emolga's ears pricked at Catrin's words, and he whirled around and started to snicker. "Oh my Sun. No way. _You two _are the ones who yoinked Gurdurr's kids? Eheheheheheheh!"

Elaine looked up in surprise. "You know about that?"

Catrin laid his ears back and narrowed his eyes. "I wasn't aware you hail from Post Town, Emolga."

"Eh, I just live nearby! I hear all the gossip. That is HILARIOUS! Nice job giving the old stick-in-the-mud a what for! Ehehehehehehehe!" Emolga held out his paw to Elaine. It took her a second to realize he was offering her a high five, and she grinned and awkwardly smacked his paw with her hoof.

"It makes me rather unsettled that the citizens of Post Town are so incredibly aware of our ongoings," Catrin muttered, not acknowledging Emolga's high five offer when he held his paw out to the oshawott.

Emolga snickered. "Dude, of course people are gossiping about you. A church boy in _this _town, especially one like you? With a fire-type? It's the most delicious thing that's happened since the sun dipped out! Heheheh!"

Catrin's eye twitched, and he curled his lips back so Elaine could see the tips of his sharp, white teeth. He said in a dark tone, "What exactly do you mean by 'especially one like me?'"

Emolga, either oblivious to the thread or uncaring of it, grinned wide and opened his mouth to reply. But suddenly, a cry cut through the air, causing all of them to whirl around.  
"AAAAAAAAAAH! H-H-HELP!"

As the cry rang around them, Elaine suddenly wasn't on Stompstump Peak anymore. A memory cut through her head, something vague and forgotten like a dream, and a scream rang through her skull. _"H-H-H-HELP!_" Elaine hissed and clutched her head with a hoof. That cry, where had she heard it before?

Images and whispers were flashing through her head, but she didn't have time to sit down and process them. Emolga and Catrin sprinted to the edge of the hill, and Elaine followed after them, tripping on stones several times in her confusion. She looked down to see a dunsparce racing out from the center cave in a panic with a massive, feathered pokemon chasing him.

"Shit!" Emolga hissed. In the split second before he took off, Elaine looked up in shock at the change in his eyes. That carefree, lackadaisical attitude evaporated like a puddle on a blistering day. Emolga's eyes were wide and twitching with agitation, and he yelled, "Hang on, Dunsparce, I'm coming!" before leaping off the hill and gliding towards him.

Elaine whirled around and started to run towards the tunnel entrance. "We gotta go help them!" she cried, but skid to a halt when she saw Catrin hadn't moved. "Aren't you coming?!"

"We could let Emolga handle this. He'll be fine against an archeops," Catrin suggested. "And Dunsparce will be saved. So then we could go home."

Elaine bristled and shot him an angry look. "I'm not abandoning anyone when I can do something to help!" She dove into the tunnel and sprinted down the stairs. She didn't care whether Catrin followed her or not but by the sound of footsteps behind her, it seemed like he was. Coming to protect the Savior, no doubt.

Elaine burst out from the cave and dashed towards the river. Dunsparce was running like a madman from the archeops, panting and screeching at the top of his lungs, while the archeops gave whispered, breathy roars and launched rocks the size of Dunsparce's body. Elaine knew right away the creature was a Lost; the icy blue eyes, the voiceless roars, the way it completely ignored the snapped wing it dragged at its side. Knowing what it was, Elaine hesitated for a moment, but Emolga's cry woke her up again.

"Hey UGLY!" Emolga shouted from the air. His cheeks began to spark. With a cry, "TASTE LIGHTNING, BABY!" he launched a ribbon of electricity that struck the archeops hard in the back. It gave a voiceless cry of pain before launching a rock into the air, and Emolga yelped, "Oh shit," and rolled aside in a dodge. The archeops launched more and more boulders, forcing Emolga on the defensive. He didn't have time to charge another attack, and from the look of Emolga's small, delicate frame, he probably couldn't take a hit.

Elaine narrowed her eyes. Smoke pouring from her nose, she scraped her hoof on the ground and charged. She gunned it for the river, faster and faster, her hooves pounding against the ground. Right on the river's bank, she leaped-

And face-planted into the river.

"Oh COME ON!" Elaine yelled as the river submerged her up to her neck in icy water. Nearly instantly, the chill grabbed her in iron teeth, and she shook uncontrollably. Oh Dragon, it was _cold! _It was horribly cold! The river wasn't deep at all here, not even able to fully submerge her, but her limbs wouldn't work. Her hooves were already going numb. Her skin sizzled. Why was it so freaking cold?!

"Savior!" She suddenly felt Catrin behind her. The oshawott shoved her out of the river, yanked off his cloak, and hurriedly brushed it over her body, soaking up as much water as she could. Elaine was still shivering, but it already was starting to feel better. "You absolute madwoman, don't go jumping into cold water! You're a fire-type!"

"It-t-t-t-t's all ch-ch-chill, C-Catrin!" Elaine got to her feet, shook out the rest of her fur, and whirled back to the battle. "We've g-g-got a bird monster to fight. EN GARDE!"

"Savior, wait!" Catrin cried out, but Elaine was already charging into the fight. No matter what happened, no one here was gonna get hurt on her watch! Emolga was still dodging boulders, blasting little wisps of electricity that dissipated almost as soon as they were summoned, while Dunsparce cowered behind a rock. Elaine bared her teeth, scraped the ground again, and charged! She ran fast, shockingly fast, and within seconds, she bowled into the archeops with her head! The Lost gasped and stumbled, but it was only stunned for a second before it charged at Elaine.

"Oh frick!" Elaine yelped. She dove out of the way, thankfully just in time. A blast of water rocketed from behind her and hit the archeops square in the chest. It gasped again, thoroughly knocked back, and Catrin sprinted forward and lunged at it with a roar, raking his claws across the bird's face.

It reeled back just in time to take another blast of electricity from Emolga. The archeops choked and stumbled, teetering on its feet, and Elaine charged in for the final hit. Smoke poured out of her nose, her lungs suddenly burned with heat, and a blast of fire erupted from her nose and lunged at the Lost. It gave a voiceless shriek, teetered, and collapsed.

"Whew!" Emolga glided down and landed atop the Lost. "You two're tough!"

Elaine took a second to hack out the smoke swirling in her lungs and then grinned. "Thanks! You too! You use that electricity real good."

Emolga smiled at her, but a cough from Catrin interrupted the moment. He looked incredibly annoyed, and without his cloak, he looked weirdly tiny. "If we're quite finished, I believe our client is currently sniveling behind that rock."

"Ah! Dunsparce!" Emolga jumped off the archeops and dashed to the boulder on all fours. As he ran over, Dunsparce peered out, eyes flooded with tears. "Emolga! Emolga!" The electric-type leaped and tackled the normal-type in a hug, and the two of them fell to the floor, laughing.

"Ahhhh, I'm so glad to see you! I'm glad you aren't Lost!" Emolga cheered. He started to pepper Dunsparce's cheek with kisses, and Dunsparce giggled and gave him one back.

Dunsparce sniffled, eyes wide with gratitude. "Thank you for rescuing me! I-I… I-I was so scared!"

As Dunsparce buried his face in Emolga's fur and started to cry, Elaine couldn't help but smile fondly. She could feel it all the way from here. The two pokemon radiated affection and love for each other; it was palpable around them. Memories of Steven running to her in the school halls and wrapping her in a bear hug every morning trickled through her head. She saw hugs from her siblings, elbow bumps from Claire, her little brother Jake crawling into her lap, head rubs from Dad and big kisses from Mom. A warm light shone in Elaine's heart. So maybe there was still a little love in this world after all.

Catrin started to walk over to the pair on his hind legs, and Elaine trotted after him. He cleared his throat. "Excuse me. If you two are done canoodling, I'd like to remind you that we took the job posting and assisted in Dunsparce's rescue. When can we expect payment?"

Emolga shot Catrin a nasty look and said nothing, but Dunsparce peered out from the electric-type's fur at them, blinking with wide eyes. Elaine's heart warmed again. Dunsparce was absolutely adorable! She was familiar with this kind of pokemon, but she'd only ever seen one once in person, out of the corner of her eye at the zoo's reptile exhibit. But she hadn't expected a reptile to ever be so adorable! Dunsparce had soft yellow scales that glinted in her tail light, with amber eyes big enough to fit the whole world in them. His soft, yellow-white feathered wings curled around his sides. Along with the blue and white stripes on his back, this pokemon also had various blue swirls in his scales, and the sides of his face were ridged like a dragon's. "O-oh, hello. Did you come to rescue me? Thank you, thank you!"

"Yeah, we saw the letter you left in Post Town! But um, how did you manage to leave a job posting if you were lost here?" Elaine asked.

"It's just a mystery dungeon thing," Catrin muttered. He thrust himself in front of her. "Payment. When."

"Catrin..." Elaine hissed. Honestly, her guide could be so UGH!

Emolga glowered at Catrin. "Alright, listen here, bud-" he started to say, but Dunsparce interrupted in a quiet voice.

"No, Emolga, it's okay. Oshawott and Tepig came to rescue me. I wanna repay them!" Dunsparce dropped out of Emolga's lap and slithered over to them with his head lowered. "It's nice to meet you both! Do you wanna come to my house? I can get together some money for you there."

"Sure thing!" Elaine said with a grin. She didn't care about payment. These pokemon had good vibes, and she was down to hang with them for as long as possible! Dunsparce gave her a big grin, and he and Emolga started to head off, so close their fur and scales brushed against each other. As Catrin went to retrieve his cloak, Elaine trotted after them with a skip in her step. Finally, some damn good company!


	12. To Make A Friend

"It's just a little bit further! My house is this way."

Elaine, Catrin, Dunsparce, and Emolga were all walking north towards Post Town along the dirt road, and the atmosphere for once was wonderful. Dunsparce and Emolga led the way, walking (and slithering) side by side. The two hadn't stopped talking since they'd left Stompstump Peak, chattering about Post Town and gossip and what Dunsparce had missed since setting out. Elaine trotted behind them with Catrin in the rear, his eyes near hidden under his hood. She could tell he was agitated, or at the very least annoyed, but in that moment, Elaine didn't give a damn. She was too busy basking in these pokemon's radiance!

"Aw man, you are gonna love Dunsparce's house," Emolga said with a big grin, turning to walk backwards to he could gesture to Elaine with his paws. "He's got all these cool art books from before the sun dipped! And they're in COLOR!"

"They're not that great, Emolga..." Dunsparce hid his face behind one of his feathered wings, blushing. "B-but, I do like to read them when I'm feeling down. They make me smile."

"And you make _me _smile!" Emolga replied, leaning in to peck Dunsparce on the forehead. Dunsparce grinned wide and nuzzled Emolga in return.

Elaine smiled at them. Oh Dragon, she was going to die. Their cuteness was going to kill her. "Do you live in Post Town, Dunsparce?"

"Mhm! Or, close by, at least. Rent in town is really expensive," said Dunsparce. "And um, all the pokemon in town can be... a little intimidating..." He took on a thousand-yard stare and shuddered.

Elaine sighed. "I feel ya there, buddy. I feel ya there. Swanna seems nice, though!"

"Oh yes, the Signora is very, very nice! She gives me an extra ration sometimes!" Dunsparce flicked his drill tail to and fro.

"She's pretty aight," Emolga shrugged and gave a mischievous smirk. "But you know a lady like that's gotta have secrets. No one keeps a town running without getting into some shady stuff."

Elaine frowned. "I'm sure she's not so bad!" But when she recalled Gurdurr's words at the summit of Hazy Pass, she didn't argue further. Why did she care about Swanna's reputation, anyway? She was practically a stranger.

Catrin spoke up from the back of the party, pleasant as always. "Do you pokemon spend all your time gossiping?"

"Lighten up, Oshawott! We're just havin' fun!" Emolga called. "And wouldn'tcha know it. Here we are!"

Elaine looked up in confusion as he and Dunsparce trailed to the left off the road. She could see the crossroads and Post Town up ahead, but they were still a good distance from town, and there was nothing here but barren rocks, dirt, and dead trees. Where was this house supposed to be? But then, Dunsparce slithered over to a cracked boulder and pulled a carpet of leaves off the ground, and Elaine saw the entrance to a burrow.

"Oh! You live underground! Like, not in a house!"

"It's safe!" Dunsparce said with a nod.

"And free so long as no one catches ya, eheheh," Emolga added with a smirk. Dunsparce blew a raspberry at him, but there was nothing but laughter in the reptile's big, amber eyes.

"Come on in, pals!" Emolga jumped down into the hole, and Dunsparce slithered after him. With a glance back at Catrin to make sure he would follow, Elaine crawled in after them.

The tunnel was unbelievably tight. It made sense, Dunsparce was a small pokemon, not even much bigger than Emolga. The earthen walls pressed on her from all sides as she crawled downwards; she couldn't even see the light of her tail. But thankfully, it didn't last long. After a minute or so, the tunnel opened up into Dunsparce's home.

It was a small, tight burrow, only one room and pretty crowded. Catrin's head brushed against the ceiling as he came in, so the oshawott ducked down onto all fours. The burrow was packed with what Elaine could only describe as memories. Framed illustrations of different pokemon covered the walls and were stacked in piles on the floor; photos of landscapes, of other dunsparces and dragon-types, of plants and berries and flowers. There were quite a few photos (sorry, drawings) of Emolga and Dunsparce together; drawings of them hugging, dancing, kissing, snoozing together. It was so damn heartwarming and adorable that Elaine was almost surprised there wasn't a pride flag strung up in the burrow. There was a nest made of old, dry hay and feathers in the corner, big enough for two, and various fliers on the wall. Elaine couldn't read them, but they had pictures of heroic looking pokemon in scarves and some sort of badge with little wings on its sides.

"Welcome! Ah, sorry i-it's not much," Dunsparce said sheepishly as she and Catrin took a look around.

"I think it's adorable!" Elaine said with a big smile.

Catrin simply _humph_'d and said, "Our pay?"

Elaine shot him a look, and Dunsparce said quickly, "Right! Yes! I'm sorry, um, let me look." He started to sift through the mess while Emolga leaned against the wall and started to flip through one of the books that had been lying on the floor. "I wanna say again, thank you for coming to my rescue. I didn't think anyone would read that note..." He suddenly whipped around to face them with a big smile. "Are you two a rescue team?"

"A whatnow?" Elaine asked, blinking.

"No. We're just taking jobs at the moment in order to pay for construction materials," Catrin muttered.

Emolga flicked his ear at Dunsparce. "These two're the guys who are building that thing in Quagsire's land."

Dunsparce gasped, looking at them with wide eyes. "Oh! Cool! Hey, um, thank you for helping the timburr. Those two had it really bad with Gurdurr..."

"I don't know the details of what was going on, but I'm glad, too. It seemed like a really yikes situation," Elaine said with a nod. She tried not to think about Deryn's confession. "They'll be safe and happy now!"

"I'm really glad!" Dunsparce said with a smile. "It's so nice to help other pokemon. You helped the timburr, you saved me... You guys are really cool!"

"Awww, I'm not all that." Elaine blushed and waved a hoof.

"Well, I think you're great! I haven't seen a hero in this town in so, so long! It's so awesome!" With a huge smile, Dunsparce slithered over to Elaine and beamed up at her. "My name's Brin. It's really good to meet you both!"

Elaine looked at him in pleasant surprise. What a far cry this was from Deryn and all the pokemon who'd resisted introducing themselves. She couldn't help but feel incredibly warmed. "Awww, well it's nice to meet you, too! You can call me Elaine."

Brin's eyes sparkled. "I will!" He slithered back and prodded Emolga's arm with his nose. "You should introduce yourself too, Emolga!"

"Nah, not everyone's as name-happy as you are, Brin." Emolga chuckled and rubbed Brin's head. "Also, we still owe these guys money."

"Right! Yes! Payment for the heroes," Brin overturned a pile of old books with his tail, and pile of gold coins was revealed underneath. Brin picked them up gently in his lips and set them down in front of Elaine. "I-I hope this will be enough? Um, I can do work, too! If it's not..."

Elaine nudged the coins over to Catrin with her hoof. "It's plenty!"

Catrin picked up the coins, turned one over in his fingers, and scoffed. "Good to know you pay your heroes peanuts for going through quite the ordeal to save you, Dunsparce."

Brin frowned. "I-I'm sorry."

Emolga _tch_'d from where he was leaning against the wall and shot Catrin a dirty look. "Brin's letter didn't specify a reward, _Catrin._"

Catrin let out a loud growl and started to storm forward, but Elaine reached out a hoof and blocked him. "The payment is _plenty. _Thank you very much, Brin." She shot Catrin a look, and he shot her one back but backed up and said nothing more on it.

"We'll be leaving then," said Catrin, "but I think it would be wise not to wander into any more dungeons you're incapable of crawling back out of, Dunsparce."

"Yeah, Brin." Emolga closed the book and sauntered over to Brin, who was staring at the ground. "I know you've got your dreams, but I really gotta ask that you stop doing this. Mystery dungeons aren't a joke."

"I-I know." Brin's lip quivered, and he tucked his wings tight around his body.

"Then you know why I'm asking. It's every month or two I'm going into dungeons tryna find you! I'm glad it was a newer one this time, but you don't always pick the easy ones. Remember Inflora Forest?"

Brin stared at the ground ashamedly. "Y-yeah... B-but it was important this time! I got something, Emolga. Something for _her!_"

Emolga shook his head and face-palmed, and Elaine looked up, her curiosity piqued. "Oh? You got something from Stompstump Peak?"

Brin nodded excitedly. He unfolded one of his wings to reveal a small geode, which clattered to the ground. "Wow," Elaine breathed. The gem was an absolute sight! The outside of the rock was the familiar ruddy brown of Stompstump Peak, but the inside was glittering with bright, white gemstone that sparkled in the light. What a treasure Brin had found!

"I'd accept that as our payment," Catrin said from behind her. Even his eyes had widened at the sight of the gem.

"I-it's not for you!" Brin cried, wrapping his tail protectively around the geode. "It's a present for a very special pokemon! I can't give it to anyone else!"

"Hey, no worries! No one's trying to take it from you," said Elaine. Brin settled down, and she asked, "Who's it for? A special someone?" She flicked her gaze at Emolga a couple of times.

"Yes! But not Emolga." Brin turned away sheepishly and kneaded at the geode with the tip of his wing. "It's, um... Well, it's for a pokemon I really, really like. I want her to be my friend. I went to get her this, s-so that maybe she'll want to be? I hope it's enough..."

"Brin, my boy, who _wouldn't_ wanna be your friend?" Emolga said with a grin. "She's in town now, probably at the inn. You wanna go give this a shot?"

Brin's eyes stretched wide as the pancakes from Jeff's Diner. (Seriously, those pancakes were huge.) He coiled around himself and tucked in his wings. "N-n-now? B-but, what if she's busy? What i-if her mouth is full when I get there and she can't answer? What if she's in an introvert mood?! I-I should wait, I-"

"Hey. Brin. Brin, Brin, Brin, Brin, Brin." Emolga padded forward and cupped Brin's face with his paws, and the dunsparce fell quiet immediately. "It's gonna go great, okay? She'll love the gift. She'll love you! How could she not? You're Brin, the roughest, toughest dunsparce this town has ever seen! And also my amazing boyfriend." Emolga leaned forward and gave Brin a kiss on the forehead, and Brin's wings fluttered (along with Elaine's heart). He gave a tiny smile.

"... Okay. Okay! I'll do it right now! Live in the moment! I'll be brave like a rescue team!" Brin grabbed an empty cloth pouch from atop a pile of books, tied it around his drill tail, and slipped the geode inside. "To town!" He started to slither past Elaine but then stopped. "Oh, um, hero! Of course, you don't have to, I'm sure you have better things to do. But, um, if you wanna come, I think it'd help a lot. If you wanna."

Catrin scoffed. "Oh, we absolutely have better things to-"

"I'd love to come!" Elaine said with a big grin. This boy was out to make a friend! There was no way in hell she wasn't gonna stand by his side! She knew how hard making new friends could be; she'd spent most of her life just praying friends would make their way to her and had always gotten lucky.

"Oh, thank you!" Brin beamed. "Alright, time to be a hero!" He slithered past Elaine and Catrin out of the burrow, and Emolga followed him out. Elaine moved to leave herself, but Catrin stepped in front of her.

They met eyes. Catrin looked practically exhausted, like all the optimism in the room was draining his Negative Nancy powers. "What, Catrin?" Elaine sighed.

"Savior, I implore you. Stompstump Peak was exhausting. These pokemon are exhausting. We both need to rest and eat, and we really ought to check on the timburr's progress before we take on our next job," Catrin murmured. "Let's go back to the property. Please."

Elaine stared at him hard. Of course he was tired. Constant pessimism must've been pretty damn exhausting. Catrin wasn't in the mood to deal with her new friends, but she wasn't in the mood to deal with Catrin. "You go back to the property, then. I'll be fine with Emolga and Brin."

Catrin gave her a tired, pleading look. "You know I can't leave you alone, Savior."

"No one said you can't! That's just a thing you do cause you're..." Elaine trailed off before she finished the sentence. _Obsessed with me. _She huffed and looked him in the eye. "Really, if you're tired, go home and rest. But I wanna go support Brin."

Catrin only held her gaze for a few seconds before dropping it and staring at the ground. "Your word is final, Savior. I apologize for testing your authority."

"It's..." It didn't feel right to accept an apology like this, when Elaine didn't even feel the right to any sort of authority. But at that moment, she couldn't be bothered to argue about it. "It's fine. You're fine." She padded past him and out into the tunnel, and Catrin crawled in after her. This was fun. This was gonna be fun. She was hanging out with her new friends, the cutest, gayest pokemon this side of Post Town. It was gonna be awesome whether the universe liked it or not!


	13. The Smell of Danger

The walk to Post Town was full of excitement. Emolga chattered on about how well the upcoming proposal was going to go, while Brin switched rapidly between agreeing with his boyfriend and panicking about the worst possible outcome. Elaine tried her best to comfort Brin. "I wanna see a skip in your step, little buddy! How can anyone turn down that geode?" As they walked, Elaine couldn't help but think back to all the times she'd walked her little siblings to the classroom door on the first day of school, psyching them up when they got nervous and encouraging them on how fun it was gonna be. Sometimes, she felt dishonest doing that, especially to her poor sibling who took more shit from their classmates than they deserved, but here, she felt a lot better about it. Brin was one of the two happiest pokemon she'd met in this world. No way was anything gonna get him down on her watch!

Catrin brought up their rear, sulking a few feet behind them. As they passed through the crossroads, he stared longingly at his property before trailing after them like a dejected miltank. (That was what Mom always called Elaine when she was glum. A dejected miltank.) Elaine couldn't deny that she was starting to feel bad. If Catrin really was as tired as he claimed, he deserved to get some rest after humoring her on their mission to Stompstump Peak. But Elaine couldn't bring herself to turn back. If she walked away from these pokemon now, she might never get to be proper friends with them! And she _needed _these friends! In a not-creepy way! Desperate, maybe, but not creepy!

Post Town was oddly quiet as they came in. Only the cinccino's shop was open, and the only pokemon in the square were a few folks clustered around the entrance to the inn, whispering to each other. Wow, that was weirdly suspicious. There was a rufflet, a patrat, a panpour, and to Elaine's surprise, even Quagsire was here! Elaine told her new friends to give her a moment and trotted over to the pokemon, Catrin behind her. "Hi Quagsire! Long time no see!"

Quagsire turned to them and blinked his smooth, black eyes in surprise. "Ah, hmm, greetings, Tepig and Oshawott. What brings you to town on this night, hmm?" He glanced behind them and spotted their company. "And with Dunsparce and Emolga, no less. Odd company for you both to keep, hmm?"

"Hey, is that an insult?" Emolga yapped from behind them. Dunsparce held out a wing to block his boyfriend from charging forward.

"We're on an errand with the dunsparce," Catrin muttered.

"Yeah! We're helping him make a friend!" Elaine said happily. She looked around. "What's with the crowd?"

"Hmm, it seems the usual folks have gathered to see the Lady Vixen in person, hmm? I will admit, I came to see her myself. I have a few questions about her travels if she'll speak to me, hmm."

Catrin cocked a brow. "The who?"

At that, the patrat, rufflet, and panpour all whirled around shock. "You don't know the Vixen?!" Rufflet screeched.

"We're new in town," Catrin muttered, looking done with this conversation already. "Who is she, then? Enlighten me." Behind him, Brin awkwardly coiled and stared in any direction but theirs.

"The Lady Vixen is a wanderer in these northern parts, hmm. She is notorious for her incredible strength and solitary nature," Quagsire explained. "She's quite knowledgeable on-"

"She's the hottest bitch to ever set foot in this town!" Rufflet interrupted. His eyes may as well have had hearts in them. Brin shot the flying-type a dirty look (or at least as much of a dirty look as he could muster).

"I want her to kick me in the face and call me scum!" Patrat said, practically drooling as she cupped her cheeks.

"She holds the beauty of an altaria, the grace of a ninetales, and all the power of a latios," Panpour finished. "Oh, what I would give to follow her on her travels, live a life of great importance as her dutiful sidekick! But alas, the Vixen takes no companions." Brin started to sweat.

"She sounds pretty cool," Elaine shrugged. She was pretty eager to end this conversation, since everyone except Quagsire was giving her weird sexism vibes.

"Yes, very cool, and I'd rather you lot avoid using such crass language in front of my companion." Catrin glowered at the three pokemon with a hint of a snarl, and all their eyes widened as they quickly stepped back. It certainly wasn't the most threatening Elaine had ever seen her guide. Either these pokemon were scaredy-skitties or Catrin's reputation preceded him.

Brin slithered up and tapped Elaine on the shoulder with his nose. "Hey, um, are you ready to go in?" His face was constipated, like he was trying to swallow a boulder.

"Yeah, sorry, didn't mean to hold you up! Let's go."

After taking a long, deep breath (in through the nose and out through the mouth, incredible form in Elaine's opinion), Brin led the way past the crowd and into the inn. The place was incredibly packed today. Hordes of pokemon clustered at the tables, most strangers to Elaine but some familiar. Swanna was at her place behind the counter, cleaning a mug and clearly off in her own world, and Gurdurr was present as well. The room was filled with the soft roar of conversation, but unlike most restaurants where every table chatted amongst themselves, every patron in the building was fixated on a pokemon in the center, like asteroids orbiting a star. In the center of the room, standing poised and elegant at the center table, was...

"What the _shit?! _IS THAT A VIRIZION?!"  
Catrin, Emolga, and Brin all turned to give Elaine weird looks at her sudden outburst. "Is that strange?" Brin asked.

"She's probably just flipping cause she's a grass-type," Emolga shrugged.

Elaine spluttered. "N-no, grass-types are fine, but that's a freaking _legendary pokemon!_"

Indeed, seated at the center table was none other than a virizion. Elaine recognized it right away from kids' picture books, mythology sites, and Wikipedia. The pokemon was _massive. _It would have felt huge even at Elaine's normal height, but in her tepig form, the pokemon was a colossus. She was missing the leaves and flowers that typically adorned a virizion, but she had the typical green fur, long, muscular legs, and horns spreading from her forehead like wings. Without a doubt, this was a virizion. But what the _freaking hell was a virizion doing here?_

"I... I'm sorry, I'm freaking confused," Elaine spluttered. "Virizion are myths! The Swords of Justice are a fairy tale! And there's one just... there! Right there! Like it's nothing!" She jabbed her hoof in the virizion's direction, gesturing wildly.

All her companions stared at her like she'd lost her mind. Brin and Emolga looked absolutely flabbergasted, but Catrin stepped forward. "Savior, I'm not sure what the circumstance is in your homeland and why certain pokemon would be considered mythological. But I assure you, virizion may be rare, but they are perfectly ordinary."

Elaine spluttered. It took her a good second to come up with some words. She should be used to this sort of thing by now but DAMN this was a curveball! "W- Next you're gonna be telling me the Dragons are real, too!"

"Dragon-types are real! My granddad was a dragon-type," Brin said. Emolga stared at her like he was considering throwing Elaine in a padded room.

Elaine groaned. "Agh, no! Not dragon-types, the _Dragons! _Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem!"

"Is there a reason they wouldn't be real?" Brin asked, eyes wide with confusion.

"I believe I heard of a kyurem living out near the Great Glacier," Catrin added matter-of-factly.

Elaine's brain shattered.

One of the inn patrons, a foongus, whirled around and hissed, "Shhhhh! I'm trying to listen to the Vixen!" before whirling back around. Elaine was still reeling; she wanted to grab Catrin or Brin or somebody and _demand a freaking explanation. _But if she kept flipping her shit, she'd probably get them all thrown out. Okay, Elaine. This was a world where suns could disappear, pokemon had landscaping companies, places could break the laws of physics, and mythological pokemon had the same amount of normalcy as a volcarona. Cool. Okay. Roll with it. When in Geosenge.

Elaine realized that besides Catrin who was staring at her in worry, her company had all turned to take in the scene at the inn. Gurdurr, a rampardos, and a kecleon (the latter of which were the shopkeeps from outside) sat at the same table as the virizion, practically drooling over her as they talked.

"S-s-so, Lady Virizion! You were traveling northwest in search of new mystery dungeons, yes? Please, tell us all about your travels! We'd love to hear about the fruits of your discoveries!" the rampardos stuttered. Elaine could feel his heart palpitating from across the room.

Virizion casually sipped on a clearish, whitish drink from a long straw and said, "I found a couple of new dungeons. Low level, few Lost. Not much of a concern." Her voice was deep like Mom's, but smooth and evocative, not the sort of voice that would screech about extracurriculars. She held herself with all the grace of a legend (which, fitting), but Elaine couldn't help but get the impression that she sounded incredibly bored. Like she'd rather be anywhere else than at this inn right now. Weird. If she wanted to leave, why didn't she just go?

Gurdurr then spoke up. The brute looked like a different pokemon in Virizion's presence; he was leaning in, looking engaged, and actually- _gasp_\- smiling. It was a tiny smile; on any other pokemon, it would've barely counted. But Elaine figured that turning up the corners of his lips was the most Gurdurr could manage. "Lady Virizion," he said, "It's fantastic to have you back in town. Been nearly a year now since the last time. Do the travels go well?"

Virizion sipped on her drink for what felt like three years before smacking her lips and responding, "They've been alright." Everyone was quiet, waiting for more, but she just went back to sipping. She drained the cup dry and then turned away. "I'll be off to my room, then."

Elaine blinked. Well, someone wasn't very social. Not that she could blame Virizion, these pokemon seemed like the worst. No wonder nobody was having luck getting past that deadpan exterior.

Virizion started to saunter out of the inn, and the crowd split like the sea to let her out. But just as she was reached the door, Brin suddenly jumped into her path. "W-w-wait!"

The crowd let out a collective gasp, which baffled Elaine. People, chill, this wasn't a flipping telenovela! Gurdurr snarled and made a move like he was about to get up and beat Brin with his pole (something Elaine was _not _going to allow). Even Swanna looked up. Virizion blinked in surprise, the first facial expression she'd made the whole time.

Brin pressed himself down towards the ground, practically shaking, and Rampardos spoke up. "Lady Virizion, do you want us to move that kid for you?"

"It's fine. Calm down." Virizion glanced down at Brin. "Yes, Dunsparce?"

"I-I, um… U-ummm…" Brin was shaking hard. The poor kid looked like the rattata standing in front of the incineroar and asking it to be his friend. But Emolga stepped over and placed a paw on his side, and Brin's eyes steeled in resolve. He opened his wings to reveal the geode and set it down in front of Virizion with his mouth. "Th-th-this is f-for you. P-Please be my friend!"

The room was dead silent. A few pokemon started to snicker or mutter to each other, which only made Brin shake more. Virizion stared at the geode for an extended moment. Then, she looked Brin in the eye and said, "No thanks."

More snickering rose up. Brin looked like he'd been struck. His eyes were wide and watery as he stuttered, "Wh-wh-what?"

"I don't make friends," Virizion shrugged. It was so frustratingly matter-of-fact. "I might consider you an ally of sorts, but you're a child, and you look incredibly weak. I don't need anyone mooching off me. So yeah, no thanks." A pause. "Nice rock, though."

Elaine started to shake in anger. What the hell was wrong with this woman?! Why would anyone ever say something like that to another person?! Emolga's face was contorted with rage; he looked like he was about to blow a fuse, and his shoulders quaked. But Brin didn't look angry at all. His eyes glistened like a pond, and thick, fat tears were already cascading from his amber eyes. He tried to say something, but it just came out as a hiccupping sob. With a wail, Brin spread his wings and flew out of the inn.

Emolga called after him, "Dunsparce, wait!" But Brin was already gone. He whirled on Virizion like an enraged arcanine. "You FUCKING SKANK! What the hell is wrong with you?! Even if you didn't wanna be friends, you don't have to be a fucking bitch about it!"

Virizion blinked, looking incredibly bored. The inn patrons behind her looked ready to tear Emolga limb from limb. "Who are you?"

"I'm his fucking partner, you buck-toothed ass," Emolga raged. His cheeks started to spark with electricity, and he opened his gliders. "You and me, town square, NOW!"

"… No."

Virizion walked past him, kicking aside the geode in the process. Shaking, Emolga roared, "GET THE HELL BACK HERE!" and tried to charge after her, but Catrin jumped in front of him. "GET OUT OF MY WAY, GIRLY!"

"You are making a scene. If you continue this course of action, you are either going to get attacked by these townsfolk or end up picking a fight with a pokemon you cannot hope to defeat," Catrin muttered.

Elaine quickly padded over to them, deciding not to make a comment on the pot calling the kettle black. "Emolga, you should go find Dunsparce. He needs you."

Emolga's face twisted in agitation. But he glanced back at the inn patrons who were all up out of their seats ready to fight, and he groaned. "You're right." He dashed out of the inn on all fours, and Elaine and Catrin hurried after him.

They headed out into the square. It had filled up more than before, and Elaine heard the whispers on the air.

"… _Just walked right up to her and asked to be friends…"_

"… _Such a moron, doesn't he know the Vixen doesn't…"_

"… _Called her a skank. TO HER FACE…"_

Catrin stared around at the gathered townsfolk with a look of distaste, and Elaine felt a pit in her stomach. But if Emolga heard them, he didn't show it. His ears twitched as he looked around the square, and he called out, "Dunsparce! Where are you, buddy?" His eyes glistened with concern.

"He may've gone home," Elaine suggested. "Maybe someone should check there while the rest of us look around here?"

"Well, I'm not leaving the Savior," Catrin stated.

"Ugh, whatever, girly, I can check there. I'll be back in a jiff." Emolga launched into the air and glided off between the buildings, and Elaine and Catrin got to searching. Thankfully, Catrin seemed at least somewhat invested in finding Brin. Having picked up his scent from earlier, he sniffed around the square like a police stoutland, searching behind buildings and in the narrow spaces between houses. He and Elaine made their way up the hillside on which Post Town was built, and the air grew quieter as they drifted further from the square. The town's residential area felt like a ghost town. They only saw two pokemon on the pathways, a venipede and a froakie. If it hadn't been for the red torches and her tail lighting up the place, Elaine would have found it outright frightening.

Sadly, their search was fruitless. Nearly an hour later, Emolga glided back down to them, eyes wild with worry. "H-he wasn't at home! I checked his favorite spots, the hilltop, the old silo, the old bridge, he isn't anywhere! He's probably freaking out, I don't know what to do!" He grabbed his headband in his paws and started to breathe hard.

Elaine quickly put an arm around him. "I'm so sorry, we haven't found him either!"

"I haven't found a fresh scent anywhere. Have you been looking for scent trails?" Catrin asked.

Emolga nodded frantically. "My nose isn't that good, though. Oshawott, could you check one more time by the entrance to town? Please?"

Catrin narrowed his eyes and stood up tall on his hind legs. "Maybe if you agree to stop using my name and calling me girly."

Elaine groaned internally. She got where he was coming from, but this really wasn't the time. "Oshawott-" But Emolga interrupted her.

"Maybe help me find my distraught boyfriend and then we'll talk," the electric-type growled, standing up on his toes to butt his nose directly at Catrin's. The oshawott bared his teeth and started to make a grab for his shell, but Elaine butted in between them.

"Now is not the time for fighting! We need to find Brin!" Elaine cried. She gave Catrin a pleading look. "Oshawott, I know you're upset, and it's something we're all going to need to talk about later. But right now, we need to help Brin. Will you and Emolga cooperate for a little bit longer? Please? I promise I'll make it up to you."

Catrin stared at Elaine for a moment, his expression emotional yet unreadable. He sighed sadly, "You are too good for this world, Savior," and then sprang down the path towards the base of the hill. Elaine dashed after him, and Emolga followed on his gliders. They passed by the Kecleon shop and came to the big wooden gates that marked the entrance to Post Town.

Right away, Catrin started to sniff around. "If you can just pick up a fresh trail, we can follow it to him," Emolga pleaded, to which Catrin growled, "Let me concentrate," in response. Emolga watched him work, clutching his paws together and shifting his weight back and forth. Elaine couldn't be sure how old her companions were, but Emolga and Brin didn't feel too far off from her age. And she knew enough about teenagers to know that if one ran off and their friend was this worried about it, it could only mean bad news. An old memory peered out at her from the back of her mind. A quiet train station, sixteen missed calls, her head throbbing from dehydration, and Steven's footsteps racing towards her under the street lamps. Her chest tightened, and Elaine scraped the ground and pleaded for Catrin to find something.

"You lookin' for yer lover, boy?"

The three of them looked up to see a pokemon watching them from across the road. It was an old flaaffy with a wrinkled face and milky eyes, leaning against a boulder and smoking a pipe. His face was turned towards Emolga.

"I'm not a boy," Emolga said with an edge of aggression in his voice. Oh shoot, whoops. Elaine made a mental note of that. "Did you see Dunsparce?"

"Didn't see 'im, heard 'im. The kid was out here cryin' 'bout somethin'. Then some folks came 'round and lured 'im off."

"Lured him off?!" Emolga's eyes were wild with fear. They dashed at the flaaffy and squeaked, "Who took him?! Where did they go?"

Flaaffy took a long drag off his pipe and said, "Pawniard brothers."

Emolga's eyes stretched so wide that the whites were visible around the rims of their irises. Even Catrin looked up with fearful eyes, his mouth slightly agape. It was like all the air had been sucked out of a room… if they'd been indoors, that was. The name _Pawniard brothers _meant nothing to Elaine, but it seemed Catrin knew something about them, and he wasn't even a local.

Emolga backed away from Flaaffy, clutching their chest, breathing hard, and shaking. It took them a moment to to compose themself enough to speak. "Where did they go?"

Flaaffy simply held out his palm.

Catrin suddenly stormed forward. He grabbed the coins Brin had paid him out of his cloak pocket and threw them at Flaaffy's feet. "Location. _Now._"

"Desolate Canyon. S'where they always go." Flaaffy bent down to pick up the coins, and Emolga and Catrin rejoined Elaine on the other side of the road.

Emolga grabbed their ears and yanked them down, eyes still wide and wild. "We need to go _now. _This is bad, this is bad, this is really, really bad! I-if anything happens to Brin, I-I-"

"The Savior and I will help you rescue him, but you need to calm down. You're no use to your partner panicking," Catrin said. "Where is Desolate Canyon?"

"M-m-mystery dungeon, north of here. It can get really rough…"

Catrin fell quiet at that and glanced at Elaine, but her heart thundered with resolve. She stepped forward and met eyes with Emolga, trying her damndest to look as calm and confident as possible. "It doesn't matter how rough that dungeon is. We're with you to the end, Emolga. Lead the way."

Tears started to fill Emolga's eyes, and their lip quivered. "Th-thank you, Elaine. You can… you can call me Macsen." On all fours, they started to dash up the road. "LET'S MOVE, PEOPLE! WE'VE GOT A BOYFRIEND TO SAVE!"

Catrin and Elaine sprinted after them. But as they started their way north, Elaine glanced back to see a peculiar sight. It was Virizion, lingering by the town gate. Elaine had no idea when she'd shown up, but the legendary stared after them with an unreadable expression. Elaine had no idea what it meant, but she didn't give a damn. She'd have plenty of time to give that woman a piece of her mind when she got back. For now, it was time to help a friend and prove how great of a savior she could be.


	14. The Strong and the Weak

"Come on, keep up, short stack. We're almost there."

"I-I'm coming! Sorry…"

Brin slithered along behind his new friends, trying to keep up as best as he could. But admittedly, it was difficult to keep up the pace when the sights of the mystery dungeon around him were so distracting. This place was called Desolate Canyon; his friends had told him that. It's what they'd said in Post Town, when they'd stopped to comfort the crying, wailing dunsparce they'd found on the side of the road. _"Come with us. There's a mystery dungeon nearby, Desolate Canyon, where you can go to get stronger. Any pokemon with their head on straight will want you as a partner after you come train with us, even that bitch virizion!" _Brin hated that sort of language, especially towards Virizion, but he'd gone. He needed to get stronger. And if his new friends could help him with that, he refused to hesitate.

However, they'd been traveling through Desolate Canyon for some time, and Brin found the dungeon incredibly strange. He was aware it was a silly thought; mystery dungeons were known for their being strange! But Desolate Canyon had such a perplexing personality; he couldn't quite wrap his head around it. Brin admittedly had more experience with mystery dungeons than the average pokemon in these times. He'd earned himself a reputation as the kid who continued to plant more than he could water, and even Macsen had long since stopped supporting his bumbling adventures. But he couldn't help it. Brin _loved _mystery dungeons. They brought out a fascination, a curiosity in him that otherwise may have faded with the sun. The mystery dungeons were his friends. Well, perhaps they weren't very good friends; he became lost in their labyrinths constantly, the Lost were undefeatable to a small, uncombative pokemon such as him, and he'd felt the decaying disease begin to creep into his body more than once in his extended misadventures. But Brin could never stay away. There was nothing in this world comparable to the wonder of a mystery dungeon, learning the quirks of their differing personalities, histories, hopes, and fears. The way each of them spoke in such a quiet and intricate language, telling stories to any mon who stopped and listened. All the pokemon of Post Town and beyond hated the mystery dungeons, and Brin had to admit he understood why. But there was nothing else like them. Nothing else.

So, as Brin followed his new friends through Desolate Canyon, he listened to its story, and its story was strange and unsettling unlike any he'd ever heard. This was an older dungeon; he could tell by the Lost. There was countless mon here, slumped over on the edges of the trail, croagunks, vullabies, blitzles, and audinos. They watched with still, blue eyes as Brin passed by with his friends, but they did not attack. Their breathing was heavy, like every breath was a struggle, and some tried to make their way over to them but stumbled, their legs unable to support their weight. Their decay was far in its process, the poor things, but their suffering would fade soon. But if Desolate Canyon was old enough for its Lost to be in such a final state of decay, why was the dungeon so well behaved? They'd been walking along a straight path through the canyon for a long time. No stairwells appeared, the path did not diverge, the dungeon threw no tricks or traps their way. It was just a singular path, filled with Lost that could not attack. It reminded Brin of the times he'd sat up straight and quickly hid his doodles in the schoolhouse when the teacher passed by his desk. The dungeon felt quietly nervous, a rattata hiding under the bush. But the dungeon had the power to destroy them, kill them or plunge them into an inescapable labyrinth. What was wrong? What had made Desolate Canyon afraid to misbehave?

"Dunsparce! _Hey, Dunsparce!_ You listening to me or what?"

"H-huh?" Brin looked up to see he'd fallen far behind his friends again. The two pawniards waited a few feet ahead. The shorter one, the one who'd called him, had his arms crossed, and the taller one was tapping his foot. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm coming, I promise."

"Good," said the shorter pawniard as Brin slithered to them in a hurry. "Better not be getting cold feet now."

"I don't have feet," Brin said with a little smile.

"Don't patronize me," Pawniard muttered, and they continued on.

Brin's new friends were a little strange. They were a no-nonsense duo, it seemed, but they had good hearts underneath. Otherwise, why would they have stopped to console a crying dunsparce of all pokemon? The shorter one was more talkative; he'd done most of the comforting and had convinced Brin to come along for training. His yellow eyes glowed with confidence, and his smooth blades looked sharp enough to prick through skin just with a gentle brush. The taller pawniard was odder. He'd remained quiet for most of Brin's time with him. His right arm was a stump that ended at the elbow. Most of his face and his right eye were covered by dark red ribbons, and Brin could see glimpses of scarred, burned metal where his face was uncovered. His blades were rigged like a purrloin's teeth and cloaked in a fine layer of rust. He had more ribbons wrapped around his right shoulder and waist, and the loose ends fluttered out behind him like Macsen's headband. A strange looking pair, but Brin preferred not to judge by appearances.

They didn't walk for much longer before the narrow trail widened into a round clearing in the canyon. Brin frowned. It was a change, yes, but it seemed more like the natural geography of the canyon than dungeon trickery. He realized quickly they'd come to a base of sorts. There were crates and barrels stacked against the canyon walls. There were several hessian sacks, filled, tied, and stacked in a pile, and- Oh. Oh, dear. A scent touched Brin's nostrils, so horrible he physically cringed and covered his face with his wings. A base in a mystery dungeon was strange enough, but what in the Sun's name was that odor?

"We're here," said Sawtooth, the rigged pawniard, speaking up for the first time since they'd left Post Town. Did he not notice the odor? Was it maybe just Brin's imagination? Well, either way, perhaps he shouldn't say anything, it would probably be awkward.

"Y-you have a base in a mystery dungeon? How odd..." Brin said, trying not to gag as he slithered forward. Bases in mystery dungeons were notoriously impossible to keep; the dungeon's shifting often destroyed them within a few days. But this place looked properly lived in. How was this possible?

"Ugh, one of them got in here," Sharp muttered, and Brin looked up to see there was a Lost in the camp. A blue-eyed foongus, hardly bigger than an actual mushroom, was dragging herself towards Sharp's feet, sighing and panting.

At the look of utter disdain in Sharp's eyes, Brin flinched. He knew, other pokemon weren't fond of the Lost. And they had their reasons. But that scowl Sharp was shooting the foongus... It gave him a nasty feeling in his belly. He quickly slithered over. "U-um, I can take her out if you want, I don't m-"

Before he could finish, Sawtooth jabbed at the foongus and skewered her on his blade.

For a moment, Brin didn't react. The movement was so quick, so horrifyingly nonchalant that it didn't immediately register to him that something terrible had happened. But as Sawtooth slowly lifted his arm to show the limp, deflated little body and the fat globs of black blood running down the side of the blade, the cold realization of what had happened creeped up his body like rime.

Brin leaped backwards before he even realized he'd wanted to move. His body trembled. "Wh-wh… What did… Wh-why did you do that?"

Sharp shot Brin a look of distaste and rolled his eyes. "Oh boy, don't tell me you're one of those sun freaks."

"Y-you killed her…" Brin mewled. He couldn't stop shaking. It was all he could manage to even speak. "Wh-why would you do that?!"

Sharp rolled his eyes and said nothing, and Sawtooth slowly turned to fix Brin in the gaze of his single, blood-orange eye. Brin couldn't understand. An instant ago, these pokemon had been his friends. They were going to teach him how to be strong. But the comforting aura they'd had in Post Town had evaporated before Brin had even realized it. The look in that eye was one of a predator.

Sawtooth glared coldly at Brin for an extended moment, and then he fixed his gaze on the girl he had killed. "It's just a Lost, kid."

"She was _alive!_" Brin cried. His voice came out more powerfully than he'd expected to manage. "She was alive, and you killed her… You killed her for nothing! Why would you do that?!"

Sawtooth did not respond. Sharp's eyes were also on him, and Desolate Canyon was silent and unmoving around them. The entire world was waiting for Sawtooth to speak. The wind whistled gently, the foongus's blood spattered on the earth in droplets, and finally, Sawtooth opened his mouth.

"Did you know that in the old days, pokemon made organizations- rescue teams- to save folks like these out of dungeons?"

Brin couldn't understand. Why was Sawtooth talking about rescue teams? What did that have to do with what had just happened? "U-um, yes, I do…"

Sawtooth gave a quiet _hmph_, eyes still fixed on the dead girl. "Just imagine it. A time when pokemon had the resources to fish these things out of dungeons. A time when survival was so easy that the strong could spend their time putting their own lives in danger for the sake of weaklings. A time when the strong and weak alike were entitled to survival." Sawtooth flung his arm, launching the foongus off his blade and at the nearest canyon wall. The sound she made on impact, that sickening _SPLAT… _Brin felt the revulsion, deep in his core. It was the worst noise he had ever heard.

In that moment, it hit Brin just how far he was from home. It'd taken hours to reach Desolate Canyon, and even longer after that to reach this spot. Macsen had no idea where he was. He hadn't said anything to them when he'd left. He'd gotten swept up in the excitement of the moment, grabbing at the chance to achieve his dream the instant it presented itself. He was so far from home, and no one knew where he was.

His entire body turned to ice.

Brin started slithering backwards, automatically, before even the semblance of a plan came to mind. "A-a-actually, u-um, I think I should be going. I really appreciate your offer to help me get strong, but I just realized I didn't tell my partner I was leaving town, and they get really worried when I wander off without saying anything so if we could pick this up another time-"

He spun around, but in the second it took him to spread his wings to take off, Sawtooth was on him. Brin gave a terrified screech when Sawtooth jumped at him with lightning speed. He was only a few inches off the ground when the pawniard grabbed his tail and slammed him against the ground. Brin choked at the force of the impact; his vision went black for an instant, and before he could even recover, Sawtooth slammed a foot on his back and held his blade threateningly close to Brin's throat. His body froze in an instant. He didn't even dare shiver, for fear of the blade touching his scales.

"My brother and I have had our eye on you for quite some time, _Brin._" Cold horror grabbed Brin around the throat at the sound of his own name coming from this stranger's- no, this monster's- throat. Tears pricked at his eyes as he covered his mouth with the tip of his wing and put all his will into not shivering, not trying to run, not moving at all. "You wander into mystery dungeons nearly once a month. Not even to do jobs or rescue anyone, just for no reason at all! And every time, you have to beg your _precious boyfriend _to save you."

The words started to form at the back of Brin's throat. _Th-they're not… _But his jaws were locked by the fear that the slightest defiance he made here would be his end.

"You're a dunsparce. Hell, less than a dunsparce, you're _nothing. _But you couldn't just quietly die, could you? You feel the need to throw yourself into danger you know you don't have the strength to face, and then the strong have to use _their _resources to save your hide. But the times when the strong had resources to spare are gone, Dunsparce." It was terrifying, how sickeningly calm Sawtooth's voice was. There was seething, cold anger buried deep, deep within, but the pawniard held it back. Like Brin wasn't even worth screaming at. "You're a liability. A drain on society. The strong sink their resources into you, but you will never give anything back. At least, not alive."

At those words, Sawtooth may as well have stabbed him. Cold, unbridled fear shot through Brin. He was too hot and too cold and felt like he was going to be sick all at once. Finally, he managed to sputter out a few shaking words. "Wh-wh… Wh-what're g-gonna…"

Sharp cackled from the other side of the clearing. The smaller pawniard slid his blade across the rock wall and said, "That's what we do, kid. Make use of the weak. If you ain't no use to anyone alive, may as well make use of ya the other way. If you catch my drift, heheheh."

No… No, no, no, no, no. He couldn't help it anymore; Brin trembled like he'd been thrown into an ice storm. He felt everything around him; the icy rock under his belly, Sawtooth's foot pressing on his spine, the ghost of the blade's touch just a hair from his throat. This couldn't be it, this _couldn't be it! _He had so much more to do! Was it all over, everything wasted just by one weak moment and one sneaky trick?! He'd only just met Elaine. Heroes were coming back, he knew it! He had to be there for the revolution, _be _the revolution! Macsen… What was Macsen going to do without him? _Macsen-_

Brin opened his mouth and screamed. "HELP! HELP, PLEASE SOMEBOD- _MMF!_" Sawtooth picked his foot up and slammed it down on Brin's head clamping his jaws shut. He started to thrash and buck like a wild Lost, flapping his wings in desperation to get away to his partner. But Sawtooth slammed his other foot down on Brin's delicate feathered wing, and he gave a muffled scream has he felt something give a sickening _crack._

"Sun's ray, will you _cut that out?! _Why do they always gotta squirm," Sawtooth hissed.

"Probably cause they don't like getting killed," Sharp said with a shrug from where he was leaning casually against the canyon wall. "Can you hurry up? It takes so long to skin the scaly ones."

"Rush me again and I'll be gutting you next," Sawtooth snarled, and Sharp flinched back. He turned his one-eyed gaze back on Brin and pressed the blade gently against his throat. Brin tried to flinch away as the blade bit softly through his scales, but Sawtooth's feet may as well have been boulders on top of him.

"Thank you for finally making a contribution to the world. Sure took you long enough," Sawtooth growled gently. "If it makes you feel better, we'll give some of the money we make off of you to your boyfriend. Sun knows he deserves the compensation."

Brin's mind was racing at a thousand miles an hour. The pawniards and Desolate Canyon faded around him; all he knew was the icy blade digging at his neck and his racing thoughts. _This is all my fault, I'm always messing up, I always mess up and Macsen has to clean up after me! Virizion's going be alone and Elaine's gonna have to do it all by herself and Macsen… I never did anything. It all never amounted to anything. I-I'm nothing. _He squeezed his eyes tight, braced himself, and let his body go limp.

_I'm so sorry, Macsen…_

"Goodbye, Brin." The blade pressed in deeper, cut through scale, and-

_KRAKOW!_

Sawtooth screeched, and Brin opened his eyes just in time to see the blinding flash of a thundershock.


	15. Let Her Save the World

**CW: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS DARK SUBJECT MATTER AND INTENSE VIOLENCE. VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED.**

* * *

As they ran through Desolate Canyon, Elaine remembered what Catrin had told her on the way here.

"_S-so um, who are these pokemon we're dealing with? The Pawniard Brothers?" Elaine asked as they sprinted up the dirt road._

"_Serial killers." Catrin's eyes blazed, and Elaine's blood ran cold. "Not incredibly notorious, but reports of their crimes have reached Noe Town. They lure pokemon from northern towns, and their victims' body parts turn up on the black market."_

_Elaine felt such a deep terror run through her that she nearly stumbled. "Wh-wh-why?"_

"_No one understands their motivations," Catrin growled. "Pokemon want the church to deal with them, but these pokemon select their times to strike very carefully to minimize witnesses. And at all other times, it's like they don't even exist. Tracking them would have been difficult even when the sun was here and we had the resources to spare."_

"_Well, not anymore," Macsen growled from where they sprinted up ahead, leading the charge. Their voice was so saturated with dangerous energy that Elaine thanked the Dragon she wasn't the one they were after. "They picked the wrong target. These suckers are going down _today_."_

It was still impossible to process. Serial killers. Actual _serial killers. _Even in the hours they'd spent running to Desolate Canyon (which, Elaine wanted to note, had _not been fun_), the idea hadn't fully sunk in. How could it? Elaine's experience with murderers was limited to crime junkie podcasts and villains on Elementary. Despite knowing these sorts of people caused real, actual harm to real, living people, it was still just entertainment to her. With Elaine's only previous exposures to death being Claire's pet goldeen that had "accidentally" gotten dropped into the garbage disposal and Steven's childhood pets that she could care less about, mystery dungeons' breaking reality was a less foreign concept. She couldn't understand now, and maybe she never would.

But Elaine knew one thing. She could not let _anything _happen to Brin.

They'd been running through Desolate Canyon's twisting paths for about twenty minutes when they heard a scream. _"HELP! HELP, PLEASE, SOMEBOD-" _

Before Elaine could react, Macsen whirled towards the shriek, eyes wild with terror. "BRIN!" They launched forward with a blast of electricity and zoomed down the path it had come from, and Elaine and Catrin sprinted after them. The scream was loud; it couldn't have come from far away! The three pokemon turned a corner, emerged into a clearing, and-

_KRAKOW! _Elaine saw the flash and heard the clap of a thundershock before she saw anything else. When the white light dimmed, she quickly took in the scene. They were in some sort of basecamp that stank to high heaven. A pawniard sprang up from leaning against the wall, a second pawniard was springing back from where Macsen had struck, and Brin was on the ground. His feathers were disheveled, and his eyes were flooded with primal sadness and fear. But as it registered to the little dunsparce that his rescue party had come, his eyes overflowed with utter relief.

"M-Macsen!" Brin spread his wings and flew to his partner's outstretched arms, despite grimacing at every flap.

"Brin! Thank the Sun, _thank the Sun!_" Macsen was crying themselves as they wrapped their boyfriend in a hug, but the moment of relief only lasted a second before Macsen pushed Brin behind them and shot the pawniards a wild snarl. The sparking of their cheeks cast a terrified yellow glow on their blazing eyes as they stepped forward. "So. Pawniard Brothers."

Having recovered from the thundershock, the bigger pawniard stood up straight to face them, and it hit Elaine just how _terrifying _this pokemon looked. This world's pokemon all had a feral aspect to them, but this was a whole 'nother level. An amputated arm, saw-toothed blades, and a scarred, disfigured face covered in blood red bandages. His single eye was a blood moon, glowering in quiet hatred. It didn't take an AP student to know he was dangerous in a way she'd never encountered in her life. Even in this world, Elaine had never stood before a person ready to kill.

Sawtooth's gaze snapped from one pokemon to the next as he took them all in. "Macsen the emolga. Resident of the Post Town outskirts and babysitter of Brin." Macsen flinched back and snarled at the mention of their name, and Sawtooth continued. "Catrin the oshawott. Low-level church member. Came from Noe Town to build one of those sanctuaries. And Elaine the tepig. Local idiot and Oshawott's tagalong, but otherwise, no history."

Elaine's gut reaction was to say, _WOW, 'scuse you, you don't score a 1393 on the SAT by being a local idiot. _But she swallowed her words when she saw her partners. Catrin's hackles were raised like a growlithe ready to bite, and Macsen's eyes held confused fear underneath their rage. Both of them were ready to fight, but there was hesitation now. They were dealing with something beyond what they'd expected.

Macsen spoke up. "If you think you can scare us by throwing our names around, you're gonna need a lot more than that. What the HELL do you think you're tryna do to my boyfriend?!"

"A favor." Sawtooth stood up straight and started to run his knife arm against the blades on his stomach. "I was going to remove a problem for you, Emolga. Your partner is a liability. You are a strong pokemon forced to spend your resources on a thing that will never provide anything in return. You would be much better off without this leech."

"THAT IS NOT FOR YOU TO DECIDE!" Macsen roared. "You think you can spy on me a few days and learn my name and think that's enough to decide what I do with my life?! Fuck you! You don't know ANYTHING about me!"

"Oh, but I do." Behind him, the smaller pawniard started to saunter over from the wall, and Sawtooth fixed Catrin in his blood orange eye. "And you. Oshawott, Oshawott, Oshawott. Tch, tch, _tch. _I don't like church members, you know."

"Am I supposed to care?" Catrin snarled, rising up onto his hind feet.

"Your sanctuary is an issue to me." Sawtooth's voice was a deep, low rumble. "We are in a world without a sun. There are not resources to spare. Everything we have, we should be giving to the pokemon strong enough to carry us forward. But you give it to the _weak _who will drain society into nothing, all the while singing lies of how this is temporary and we must only hold out a short while until the sun comes back." His chuckle rolled like thunder. "You are _liars._"

"Liars and thieves," the second pawniard piped up with a snicker. "I always tell Pawniard we should be gutting more sun freaks."

Catrin's body shuddered in anger. He grabbed his shell off his chest and barked, "How dare you two speak sacrilege when you know _nothing? _How dare you call the prophecy a lie?!"

"Your flowery words of sacrilege solve nothing. Your church solves nothing. Only action creates solutions. And I take action." Standing side by side, the Pawniard Brothers brandished their knives and paced forward. "It really is a shame. Emolga and Oshawott are such strong pokemon. You'd be a boon to the world if you didn't shackle yourselves to the world's problems," Sawtooth muttered. "But by coming here, you've made yourselves witnesses. And _we cannot have witnesses_."

The way he said it sent a flood of terror through Elaine. Desolate Canyon suddenly felt fuzzy around her. Her eyes couldn't tear themselves away from the pawniard's blades. Those things could cut. They could kill. Her head went light, and she nearly pitched over before catching herself with a hoof. Oh, Dragon… _Oh Dragon… _But she shook her head like a herdier and stood on her four feet. They were in danger. They could die. But she had to protect everyone. She couldn't let anyone get hurt!

Macsen scoffed. "For all your '_everyone's dumb and I'm so smart_' talk, you sure are a pair of freaking idiots. There's two of you and four of us, and we've got a fire-type! Do you really think you're gonna win this one?" Their cheeks sparked to life, and Catrin brandished his shell beside them.

The smaller pawniard broke into cackling laughter, and Sawtooth gave the tiniest of smiles. Even before he spoke, Elaine already felt it coming. "Larger parties have come after us before, Emolga. Do you really think we would ever let anyone get away?" With a toothy grin, Sawtooth raised his knife and brought it down hard on the blade of his stomach. The cry of metal rang across the clearing.

_SHIIIIIING!_

The walls came to life.

Elaine thought at first that the stone itself was shifting, like a massive golem was breaking out of the wall to stomp them to death. What actually happened was a billion times worse. Elaine didn't consider herself scared of bug-types; all the ones she'd ever encountered were small enough to step on if things went south. But she was a lot smaller now, and compared to the bug-types she was used to, these were a lot _bigger._

First came a trio of venipedes. Their pointed feet scratching against the rock was nails on a chalkboard. Her body twisted up at the sound of it. Behind them, two galvantulas crawled out of the shadows. These titans must've been five times bigger than their whole party at _least_. Yellow hair covered their bodies, and the sight of their eight scrabbling legs and pincer-framed mouths dripping with saliva brought bile to of Elaine's throat. Those things could swallow her whole if they grabbed her. She was so small. Dragon dammit, she was _so small! _She scrambled back as the bug-types crawled to the floor and lined up behind the pawniards, beady eyes narrowed and ready to fight.

Seven on four. _Seven on four._

Were they going to make it out of here alive?

She glanced at her companions. Brin was cowering behind Macsen, who was still baring their teeth, but their sparks had simmered down and their eyes were wide with fear. Catrin's coat bristled, and his eyes flicked nervously between the pawniards and the bug-types. But he bared his teeth, and his eyes flared with a determination absent in everyone else. Elaine knew. Catrin would get her out of this alive or die trying. He would fight to the bitter end for the future he hoped to bring to this world. Elaine glanced at Macsen and Brin, cowering and afraid but standing together.

She scraped her hoof against the ground. If Catrin would fight that hard for the future he wanted, then so would she.

"Brin, Macsen, Catrin, and Elaine." Sawtooth shook his head in disappointment and then raised his blade. "Goodbye."

The fight exploded.

As the bug-types charged, Macsen shouted, "Brin, get out of here and get help!" Brin, eyes wild with terror, didn't hesitate to spread his wings and flap towards the top of the wall. A galvantula charged towards them, and Macsen jumped at its face to block it, but the bug-type knocked them aside with a giant, furry leg and spat a web towards Brin. He only saw it coming a second before it hit. The yellow-white web grabbed him like a fist, the silk sparked with crackling light, and Brin screamed in pain as the web electrocuted him. Macsen and Elaine both cried out as Brin's eyes rolled back in his head and he fell. They both dashed forward to catch him, and Elaine reached him first. He bounced off her back, and she jolted at the electroweb's sparking touch on her skin. Brin flopped to the ground, unconscious and muttering deliriously.

The galvantula suddenly sprang at them. "Hands off MY CATCH!" it hissed in an ear-shattering screech. Elaine jolted back, but she didn't have time to react further before a water gun blasted the galvantula from the side. It hissed and sprang back, and Catrin launched out of nowhere and slashed the bug from throat to tail with his shell. "GET AWAY FROM HER!"

While Macsen took on the pawniards and second galvantula on the other side of the clearing, the venipedes advanced on them. They let loose a needle-like screech and then curled up and started rolling, gearing up to charge. In the next second, they blasted forward like an army of evil Sonik the togedemarus. Catrin watergunned one of them away before dodging the second. Elaine managed to dodge the third just in the nick of time. Smoke swirled in her lungs. As the venipedes bounced off the wall to charge her again, a blast of fire jumped from her nose and pounced on a venipedes. It screeched as its body caught fire. Quick not to miss her chance, she scraped her hoof and charged, knocking the venipede into a rock.

"Savior, look out!" Elaine whirled around to see Catrin pounce at a venipede that had been charging for her. The two pokemon rolled across the clearing, slashing at each other. The last venipede charged her, this time not rolling but instead springing at her on its stubby, pointed legs.

"B-back off!" Elaine cried. She let out a sharp exhale, a blast of fire flared up her throat, out her nose, and at the venipede. The bug dodged under the grasping flames and jumped at her. Elaine screeched as the venipede grappled at her chest. In a kneejerk reaction, she flipped onto her back and kicked it in the stomach with her back hooves. The venipede choked and flew back, and Elaine jumped to her feet just in time to see a pawniard darting at her.

"Hellooooo missy!" the pawniard cackled as it jumped at her. It was the smaller one with the smooth blades; his eyes buzzed with a crazed energy, and his wide, toothy smile was VERY out of place. Elaine sprang back as Pawniard slashed with one of its knives. He was far too quick for her, and he slashed again before she had time to dodge. But as Elaine squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the hit, she heard a _CLANG!_

Catrin had jumped between them. He'd caught Pawniard's advancing blade with his shell, gritting his teeth as he pushed back. "Do not _touch her!_" He slid his shell off Pawniard's knife and jabbed for his face, but Pawniard parried the blow. They slashed and parried like swordfighters, Pawniard pushing Catrin back but not breaking through his defense. Pawniard stabbed at him straight-on, and Catrin knocked his blade upwards, making him stumble. Catrin's forepaws suddenly glowed black as he slammed Pawniard in the face with both paws.

Pawniard fell back with a cry. Catrin grabbed Elaine by the scruff and started dragging her towards the clearing exit at a sprint. "We need to get out of here _now!_"

"What? NO!" Elaine slammed her butt down and dragged her hooves like a stubborn mudbray. "I'm not leaving my friends!"

Catrin spun around and glared at her with wild eyes. "THAT WAS AN ORDER! IF WE STAY HERE, WE'LL DIE!" But suddenly, a shadow sprang at Catrin from behind, and Elaine screeched.

"BEHIND YOU!"

Catrin whirled around with shocking speed and caught Pawniard's advancing blade with his shell. It was like the steel-type had jumped out of a shadow! He cackled and pressed down on his shell, grinning crazily. "Protecting your little princess, huh? What's so special about 'er? Spent a lotta money on her?"

Catrin's teeth flashed. He slid his shell up off Pawniard's knife and kicked him hard in the stomach. Pawniard flew back, and Catrin didn't even seem to notice that his foot came away red and bleeding. "How DARE YOU SUGGEST SOMETHING SO VILE?!"

"I just wanna knooooow!" Pawniard sang as he jumped back at them. Catrin parried his blows, stepping backwards to keep him off Elaine. "You fight good, Oshawott! Better than I'd expect out of a sun freak! So, stop playing defense and FIGHT ME HEAD ON!"

Pawniard slashed at Catrin's left, and Catrin moved to parry. But at the last second, Pawniard suddenly darted to his right. becoming a shadow for an instant as he thrust a blade at Elaine. She shrieked and stumbled back. As Catrin tackled Pawniard to the ground with a roar, Elaine fell backwards right into something big and hairy: a galvantula.

Elaine screamed and kicked at its arms as it grabbed her. When its arms didn't budge, she tilted her nose up to blast it in the face with fire. The galvantula shrieked and dropped her. She only managed to get a few feet away before it shook the flames off.

"Y'know, I think I liked it better when you fire-types were EXTINCT!" Galvantula blasted a bright white web at her. Elaine tried to spring away, but something slammed hard into her side. Her flank burst into pain as the rolling venipede knocked her into the web. Elaine tried to get up, but the sticky web held her limbs down like a suction. She was trapped!

The galvantula advanced on her, and something primal took over Elaine. She was no longer human, no longer a pokemon, but a trapped, terrified animal seeing death before it. She screamed like she'd never screamed before. "CATRIN, _HELP!_"

"SAVIOR!" Catrin jumped off Pawniard and sprang towards her at a hundred miles an hour. But in his wild panic, he didn't see it coming. The galvantula fired a sparking web that grabbed him right on the back. The web flared to life, and Catrin screamed as the electricity stabbed through his body. It was like nothing she'd ever heard before, nothing. The galvantula fired charge after charge through the web, and Catrin convulsed on the ground in agony. Only when a sadistic, satisfied grin spread across the galvantula's face did the charges end and Catrin slumped over, completely limp. The stench of burned flesh choked Elaine's lungs, and she thought for one horrible moment that her guide was dead.

Pawniard sauntered over, lifted Catrin up by the scruff, and slapped him across the face with the flat side of his blade. "Oh, don't go passing out on me, Oshawott. It was just a little zap." He tossed him, and Catrin fell onto the web limp as a ragdoll.

"Catrin! Are you okay?" Elaine cried. He didn't answer, but she could see his sides heaving and a semblance of awareness in his eyes. He was alive, maybe somewhat conscious. But with them both trapped on the web and beaten, the horrible realization dawned on Elaine that it might not even matter that Catrin had survived the hit.

"You finished with that other one yet, Pawniard?" the steel-type called.

"Pretty much." Elaine turned to see Sawtooth approaching. He was dragging something behind him like a sack, and only when he tossed it onto the web did Elaine realize it was Macsen. They were covered in bad gashes, electric burns, and red splotches. Elaine was at least relieved to see they were still snarling with blazing eyes, but they were beaten. They'd all been beaten.

"That was more annoying than I thought it would be, but it's done," Sawtooth muttered. One of the venipedes dragged Brin over from the other side of the clearing, who was still wrapped in webs but conscious again. He sobbed and hiccupped, murmuring something too quiet to hear. Once Brin was lined up with the rest of them, the bug-types backed up to give the Pawniard Brothers room with their prey.

"So." A tiny smile tugged at the corner of Sawtooth's mouth. His single knife screeched as he ran it over the blade on his stomach, and the metal flashed in Elaine's light as he lifted his hand. "Who's first?"

"L-look," Macsen growled. Their voice was laced in pain, like it took all their energy to speak. "Kill the rest of us and let Dunsparce go. He's not worth it."

"E-Emolga!" Brin wailed.

"Pokemon are always looking to buy oshawott scalchops. Emolga gliders fetch a decent price, and do you even know how much bank you'd make selling a fire-type?" Macsen gave a shaky exhale. Their face twisted in pain. "Whatever you'll get off a dunsparce will be peanuts compared to that. You don't need him. Let him go."

Sawtooth and Pawniard blinked at Macsen, looking pretty unimpressed. But they both looked up in attention when a low, rolling growl suddenly rose from Catrin.

"E-Emolga…" Elaine shrank back as much as she could. Her guide's voice was hoarse and quiet and thick with pain, but none of that could dampen the broiling anger rising off the half-conscious oshawott. "If you ever… dare… try to sell the Savior again, I s-swear by the Sun-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Pawniard suddenly barked, cutting Catrin off. "Oshawott, no way. You think that tepig is the _Savior?_"

Elaine suddenly felt like a spotlight was on her. All eyes in the clearing fixed on her, from Brin and Macsen's shocked gaze to the bug-type's surprised glances to Sawtooth's suspicious glare. And then, something happened that Elaine hadn't expected. The bad guys all started to laugh.

Besides Sawtooth who remained as composed as ever, Pawniard and the bug-types all broke into laughter. "Bwahahahahahahaha!" Pawniard shrieked, clutching his belly in laughter. "That's sun freaks for ya! They grab the first fire-type they can find and call her a savior! What a joke!"

But as the others continued to laugh, Elaine met eyes with Sawtooth. His blood orange eye was narrowed just slightly. Though she could tell he was reading her, she couldn't fathom what it was he saw. But then Sawtooth strode forward. The other thugs fell silent and Catrin growled louder as he stepped up to Elaine and lifted her chin with the tip of his cold blade.

In a low voice, he asked, "Are you a human?"

Elaine stayed silent. She couldn't speak. Her body was locked in such rigid terror that no words would've come if she'd tried. Here she was, in a world impossibly far from her own, with Mom and Dad and her siblings and Steven an entire universe away, utterly alone and staring down a serial killer. She pleaded to the Dragon or the Sun or anyone that would listen to please wake her from this nightmare and let it be _over._

Sawtooth grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and yanked her off the web. She hissed as the web ripped away her hair but otherwise did nothing as Sawtooth dragged her across the ground. She saw a flash of movement behind her as Catrin started to squirm desperately.

"No! NO! Don't touch her! Bring her BACK!" He shot a desperate water gun in Sawtooth's direction, but the shot barely held the power of a squirt gun. Sawtooth didn't even acknowledge it as he dropped Elaine and slammed a foot down on her throat.

She gasped and choked at the sudden blow, and Catrin thrashed even harder. "DON'T TOUCH HER!"

"How're you gonna stop me?" Sawtooth asked. He then stared down at Elaine with a look of distaste. "Even before the prophetess turned out to be a madwoman, everyone knew the prophecy was fake. But even so… I don't like taking chances." Over everything, it was the stillness in his voice, that inhuman, seething calm, that terrified Elaine most, down to the pit of her stomach.

"So, let's end this one here."

Sawtooth grabbed her by the ears and yanked her head up, and Elaine's eyes shot open when Catrin suddenly screamed. "NO! Please, please no!" He reached out to her with his one free paw, eyes wild with desperate terror as they filled with frightened tears. "Please, Pawniard, please don't. If you kill that tepig, the world is doomed! You _can't-_"

"We were all doomed from the moment the sun disappeared, boy. You can't bring back the dead."

"She can! _She can!_" Catrin cried. "Please, please let her go! I waited so long for her, you have _no idea-_" His voice choked in a sob. "You have NO IDEA! Please let her go, she _has to save me!_"

"News flash, Oshawott. You aren't worth saving either."

"Don't you DARE SAY THAT!" Catrin started to thrash again, raging and spitting, but his weakened body was useless against the web.

"Do you even care where she came from? That she probably has a home and family to get back to?"

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!" Catrin thrashed and bucked for only a second more before he went limp again, panting hard. "Please don't kill her, not until she saves the world! Do whatever you want with her after, I don't care, but please let her save the world! _PLEASE!_"

For a long moment, the only sound in the clearing was Catrin's sobs and heavy breaths. The bug-types glanced at each other awkwardly. Sawtooth stared at him silently, and then, very quietly, he snickered.  
"Not a great feeling, is it? When someone tries to take your prey," he murmured, shaking his head. "It's almost funny. You people delude yourselves into thinking you have some sort of moral high ground over the rest of us. But no matter how much you deny it, kid, the churchgoers, the commoners, and the criminals are all cut from the same cloth. We are all _One under the Light._" Another snicker, and then in a quiet voice, "Goodbye, Elaine."

At her exposed throat, Sawtooth swung his blade.

But it never struck.

Sawtooth dropped her like a sack and spun around when someone screamed behind them. The icy stone floor jolted her back to life, and when Elaine looked at the scene behind them, for a moment, she didn't even believe it. The galvantulas and venipedes were fighting something in the dark, a black silhouette more colossal than the massive bug-types. They tried to fight, tried to run, but in an instant, they all dropped to the floor.

"What the hell?!" Pawniard cried as he scrambled back. Sawtooth held his ground, but his blood moon eye was wide with fear, and his body had gone rigid as a board.

"Who are you?!" Sawtooth shouted. The silhouette paused, the downed bug-types moaning in a heap around it. Then she stepped into the light, and Elaine could barely believe her eyes.

It was Virizion. The graceful legendary looked as cool and collected as she had in Post Town, but this time, her eyes were narrowed in a disapproving glare. She lifted her head high and spoke in the voice of a goddess.

"Release them."

Pawniard was frozen in confusion. Sawtooth raised his blade, eye narrowed and teeth bared. "Just who the hell do you think you're messing with? We're the Pawniard Brothers! If you think we haven't faced-"

Sawtooth didn't finish, because Virizion dashed forward at lightning speed and bowled him over with her hooves.

Elaine took that moment to leap as far away from him as possible. She breathed shakily, and waves of sickly cold rolled through her as she woke up. Her brain started to scream. The weight of everything hit her at once. Oh Dragon, _she'd almost died—_

Sawtooth suddenly sprang up and lunged at her. Elaine screamed and scrambled back, but a volley of rainbow, glowing leaves buffeted Sawtooth from behind and bowled him over. The pawniard barked in rage and whirled back on Virizion. As the legendary readied to fight, she shot Elaine a glare. "Don't just sit there, Tepig, look behind you! If you don't want to die, then FIGHT!"

Elaine whirled around. The bug-types weren't in great shape anymore, but they were slowly making their way over, ready to help their masters slaughter them all. And something primal took over Elaine. She'd almost died. She didn't want to die. If she wanted to live, then _they had to go down!_

Elaine jumped to her feet and charged.

The bug-types were so surprised to see her up that they didn't even react until she bashed a venipede with her head and sent it flying into the canyon wall. The other bugs flinched back in fear, still trembling in pain from Virizion's attacks. A voice in the back of Elaine's head trembled at the idea of them looking at her a vicious, wild animal. But it didn't matter. She needed to get safe, and they had to go down! She jumped at a venipede and slammed its skull with her hooves, knocking it out instantly. The last venipede jumped back, but not fast enough to avoid a blast of fire. It shrieked as the flames engulfed it, and it left a wail in its wake as it raced from the clearing. She whirled on the galvantulas, heaving like an animal as fire swirled around her. They turned tail and scrabbled up the canyon wall, crying out as Elaine's fire jumped at their back legs before they made it over and vanished.

Elaine turned to see if Virizion needed help on the other side of the clearing, but that didn't seem to be the case. Virizion danced around the pawniards like they were nothing, dodging every slash and blasting them with volleys of magic leaves. As Pawniard charged her, Virizion spun around and kicked out with her back hooves, knocking him unconscious the second they connected. Sawtooth gave an enraged cry and became darkness as he charged, but Virizion knocked him down with a hoof to the stomach and then slammed her weight down on his leg. It gave a sickening _CRACK, _and Sawtooth's resulting scream devolved into whimpering sniffles and mewls.

The brothers were defeated.

"Y-you can't do this," Sawtooth whimpered. "W-we are the Pawniard Brothers! We protect the world by c-culling the weak—"

"Oh, shut up," Virizion spat, and Sawtooth immediately clamped his jaw shut. She turned to the web. "Tepig, help me free your companions. ... Tepig?"

Elaine blinked, realizing that Virizion was talking to her. "S-sorry. I... sorry." She hurried over, not thinking, not sure what _to _think. She saw Virizion start to cut away the webs around Dunsparce with her sharp horns. Elaine started to work away the webs around Catrin with her teeth, and only when he sprang to his feet did she realize he'd been talking to her the whole time.

"Thank the Sun!" Catrin cried. He winced in pain but pushed through it to wrap Elaine in a big, tight hug. "Thank the Sun! You're alright! You're alive! Y-you're alive..." His warm tears seeped against her skin has he held her tight, stroking her ears and trembling. He said nothing more. Elaine said nothing either.

"Get the HELL AWAY FROM ME!"

The white light of electricity flashed behind them. Elaine turned to see that Virizion had just sidestepped a thundershock from Macsen, who was still on the web. Brin was behind her front legs, looking frightful as his partner glared at their rescuer. "This is your fault, you heartless bitch!"

"Do you accuse me of sending the Pawniard Brothers after you?" Virizion asked flatly.

"DUNSPARCE WOULDA NEVER GONE WITH 'EM IF YOU HADN'T TREATED HIM LIKE DIRT! YOU ALMOST GOT HIM KILLED! YOU ALMOST GOT _ALL OF US KILLED!_" Macsen's cheeks sparked to life as they readied another thundershock, but they suddenly shuddered and pitched over.

"Emolga!" Brin cried and ran to their side, and Virizion rolled her eyes.

"You're exhausted. Don't overexert yourself." She stepped away from Macsen and allowed Brin to work the webs away with his drill tail. Once they were free, Brin helped Macsen up by letting them lean on his head. They were shaking and still obviously in pain, and they hissed and nearly fell over again before Brin caught them.

"I can carry you on my back if you're injured," said Virizion.

"Fuck you," Macsen spat.

Gritting their teeth and shaking, they let Brin guide them back towards the way they came. The two paused for a moment as Brin turned and murmured, "C-come on, guys... We should go..." They headed back up the trail.

"They're right. We shouldn't linger." Catrin let Elaine go and started to walk after them but hissed in pain and pitched over. This time, Virizion didn't ask. She bent over to pick Catrin up by his hood and placed him gently on her back. Elaine figured he'd fly into a rage, but when Catrin slumped over and went limp on her back, she realized he was way too spent for that. Saying nothing, Elaine turned and started to follow after Brin and Macsen. Her legs trembled under her.

"I can carry you as well, Tepig," Virizion offered. She started leaning down to pick her up, but Elaine growled like an animal and jumped away. Virizion blinked in surprise, and even Catrin looked up curiously.

"_I'm fine,_" Elaine snapped. She turned and left clearing on her own four feet.

"I can walk by myself."


	16. Let's Do This

Catrin expected Virizion to follow the Savior right away. She did not.

"Why do you hesitate?" he asked in a soft growl. If he had even a fraction of his strength, he would have sprang from her back there and then. He did not want to be alone with a stranger. The Savior's holy light was already fading down the pathway. She was out of sight. His frail heart thudded with anxiety.

Virizion stayed silent for a breath. She looked over her shoulder at him. "I don't think the others would understand, Oshawott, but I believe you are different. There's one more thing I must do."

Catrin narrowed his eyes. Nothing in the grass-type's voice betrayed nefarious character, but he'd lived too long to trust any offspring of this world. His body was still sagged and limp, thrumming with soft pain from the zap of that blasted electric-type. Could he get away if this went wrong? "And that would be…?"

Virizion turned her head to the two pawniards slumped on the ground. They were the last remaining evil in the clearing; the bug-types were long gone. In a voice neutral and cold but just a little bit sad, she spoke. "The Pawniard Brothers are badly injured, but they still breathe. They will live through this. We should correct that."

It took Catrin a moment to understand. Ah… "You wish to end their lives…" The fur rose on his back. He suddenly felt nauseous.

"You're a member of the Church, and I respect that you may believe even these creatures' lives are sacred. Trust me, I understand…" She trailed off for a moment. Though she tried to hide it, Catrin saw sadness in her eyes, small and brown as nuts. "But these pawniards will wake and recover, and they'll kill again. They may even come after you and your companions. There's no jail to keep them in; no village head would take responsibility for them. Two evil lives to spare countless good. Do you understand?"

Catrin did not respond immediately. The longer Virizion spoke, the more nauseous he felt. She was asking his permission to end the pawniards' lives… Why him? She should be asking the Savior, not some lowly wretch such as— Ah, but Virizion had arrived late. She didn't know who the tepig was. Dunsparce was wide-eyed and naïve; he would never accept this proposal. Emolga would probably decline out of spite. And the Savior… Would she understand?

Catrin sighed. Even as he moved to respond, his jaw resisted like a rusted door. He spoke through his nausea. "If they come for your life, they are prepared to lose their own," he murmured. "Do what needs to be done."

"Thank you." Seeming somewhat emboldened, Virizion approached the unconscious pawniards. Their metal hides were dented and cracked from the grass-type's powerful kicks. It was hefty damage but nothing permanent. She approached the smaller pawniard first. Catrin's ribs tightened as he silently relived that desperate battle, fighting with a single scalchop against whirling knives. He did not look away.

Virizion closed her small, brown eyes and inhaled. A faint green aura glowed around her. She raised a hoof and brought it down like the hammer of justice against the pawniard's skull. A _CRACK _rang through the clearing. She punctured straight through. Blood bubbled out and down the pawniard's face like a hot spring. Catrin's eyes locked on that bleeding face, and his nausea began to fade. His eye twitched just slightly. He scraped his claws gently against Virizion's fur.

She padded then to the second pawniard. The heathen. The murderer. Just the sight of him set Catrin's blood to a boil. He started to growl, and his hackles rose despite their soreness. Scum. Vile scum. Monstrous, despicable, loathsome, vile _scum. _When he remembered that creature's torment, what that thing had _almost done—_

"Calm yourself," Virizion told him.

Catrin's eye twitched. He bared his teeth just slightly. "If you'd seen what he tried to do—"

"I know well enough. Be at peace, Oshawott. He can do you no more harm."

Virizion stomped through Pawniard's skull. Her hoof came back bloodied with bits of gore in her fur. As the blood crept across the stone earth, something hot spread through Catrin's chest. His ears felt warm. His claws itched and curled. He could not imagine why he'd hesitated to grant Virizion's wish in the first place.

_Good, _he thought, as he watched Pawniard shudder and bleed. _Die. _

He expected they would leave then, and he lifted his head to stare after where the Savior had gone. It had only been a few moments, but his heart already panged for that warm light. But Virizion did not yet leave. Stepping between the two bodies, she lowered her head to the earth and spoke in a murmuring voice.

"_May their souls find solace in the light. May their memories light the dark. May their flesh fuel the fire and the earth that it feeds. Find something better than that which you left._"

As Virizion lifted her head with a sigh, Catrin stared at her wide-eyed. His body tensed till it was rigid as stone, and his ears fell back. "Th-that prayer… It's told nowhere but in the Church's private circles. Y-you're a member of the Church?"

Virizion looked back at him and gave a tiny, sheepish smile. "Once upon a time. It was easy to have faith when the Sun shone for all hours of the day back then. When it vanished, I found my faith challenged, so I journeyed from my southern home to Noe Town in hope of finding new inspiration… What I found there ended my faith."

Catrin's fur stood on end. Why was the Savior not here?

"Now, I may be mistaken. I have many memories of that place, all disturbing and confusing, but…" Virizion suddenly fixed him in a hard look. "I don't think yours is a face I would forget."

Catrin sprang back. It was automatic, an act of instinct. He pushed off Virizion and thudded against the rock. Pain spasmed up his body, but he powered through and grabbed his scalchop.

"Oh, will you stop it. What do you think I'm here to do, deliver vigilante justice? You're the least of my problems," Virizion muttered, not moving from her place.

"I _do not want the past following me,_" Catrin snarled.

Virizion rolled her eyes. "Buy Post Town off Swanna and hire three dozen lackeys, and maybe then you'll have the power to stop me," she muttered. "It's no use getting haughty with me, Oshawott. I'm not your enemy, and you're not my responsibility. Seeing as you're here building a new sanctuary, the Church has already dealt with you. I didn't intend to ruffle your fur. I just wish to say one thing."

Heart thudding, body aching, head pounding, Catrin pushed himself up into a sitting position. He was alone with this pokemon. The Savior was gone. He couldn't move on his own. He was cornered. Anger rolled through him like the gusting winds of a storm, but there was nothing he could do. Baring his teeth, he held Virizion's gaze with a look he prayed was even the slightest bit intimidating. "What?"

"I didn't believe the prophecy for a long time. And even seeing her now, I'm not sure I can again, at least not yet." Virizion stared down the path. "But she is our last chance. The prophecy foretold that the first pokemon she met would be her guide. I assume that was you, and there's nothing I can do to change that now. But if I could, I would, because your history is not one I would trust anywhere near the Savior. So, Oshawott…" She took a step towards him, towering high like a colossus, and fixed him in a look as black as the night. "_Do not mess this up._"

Catrin shivered. The hot anger he'd felt just a moment before had evaporated into a cold, sick emotion. This wasn't even fair. Nothing had been his fault, not in Noe Town or anywhere. He wasn't the one who'd made the Sun disappear. He wasn't the one who'd spread crime and plague through the continent! It wasn't him who'd chosen for all those pokemon to die! He hadn't made her go mad! It wasn't his fault! None of it was! NONE OF IT!

But there was no convincing her of that, was there? He scraped his claws over his scalchop and snarled.

"I won't."

"Then we're in agreement." Virizion gave a little smile that made him want to fling his scalchop at her nose. "Now, we should catch up with the others. You're not much use to the Savior here." She stepped forward, picked up Catrin gently by his cloak, and set him down on her back. As she padded from the clearing where the Pawniard Brothers' bodies cooled, Catrin yanked his hood down over his head and shook in quiet anger.

This was not his fault.

* * *

"_You really don't have to come with me, Steven."_

_Not even her puffy, blue overcoat could keep back the biting chill of a Castelia winter day. Seriously, _screw _winter. This Dragon-awful season turned her bright, beautiful city to a stony monochrome. The wind buffeting against the concrete buildings would not stop smacking her in the damn face, and the slush soaked her feet to the bone no matter how thick her socks were. Castelia didn't even get to have the one good part of winter! Snow was overrated, but at least it was pretty. But give it a few hours after a snowstorm, and all that white goodness turned to brown, sloshy, muddy slop. What Dragon in their right mind allowed for this to happen? She was gonna have a word with them._

"_But I wanna cooooome!" Steven made an exaggerated pout and skipped ahead on the sidewalk. If there's one thing winter couldn't dampen, it was this kid. His nut-brown skin glowed like a setting sun, his toothy smile was bright as a billboard, and his neon, rainbow-striped jacket could probably cause a car crash. He didn't even seem cold! Which, considering he wasn't even wearing a hat over his half-shaved head and floppy, black hair, it was probably witchcraft. She could buy Steven being a witch._

"_Well, I don't!" she muttered. "Seriously, you're gonna waste your ticket money. And then Jamal's gonna be on __my __ass cause two of us had to bail last minute!" She kicked a nearby chunk of ice, which ricocheted off the nearest building into the street. "And you were looking forward to this for weeks…"_

"_So were you," Steven shrugged. He twirled back over to her, took his mitten'd hand in her own, and swung their arms between them as they walked. A warm feeling washed over her before she remembered they weren't supposed to do this sort of thing anymore and glanced around warily._

"_Relax, your stupid boyfriend isn't around," Steven muttered, now pouting for real. She knew the difference: his lips puffed out in a joke pout. They tightened inwards when it was real. _

"_I'm not… That wasn't…" She wrenched her hand away from his and shoved them in her jacket pockets. "Look, it's not like I wanna miss the concert, okay? Dad was s'posed to pick the kids up from school, but he forgot to ask for the shift off. Someone has to do it."_

"_And not your mom?"_

"_You know she can't." She rubbed her temples for a moment before turning to him. "Look, Steven, I get that you—"_

_She cut off when a group of 20-something passersby suddenly jeered at them. "Who let the miltank out without its trainer?" It was like being stabbed. She froze for a second before growling and storming forward, and when Steven stopped and opened his mouth, she grabbed him by the forearm and dragged him with her._

_That didn't stop him from shouting, though. "AT LEAST WE'RE NOT TRANSLUCENT, YOU CRACKER-ASS—"_

"Will you STOP?!_"_

_Steven silenced immediately at her scream. His eyes went wide and wet with worry. With hurt. Ugghhh, she hated that look. The guilt was already contorting in her stomach. Damn this psychological warfare._

_She rubbed her temples. "Look. I get you're trying to be a good friend, and I appreciate it, but you're smothering me. Not everything has to be this massive problem! I don't mind helping out to pick the kids up from school, Hunter is _not stupid_, and I can handle a few random assholes in the street! Can you not treat me like a kid for one second and just believe me when I say I'm fine?!" _

_They stared each other down for a long time. Her stomach was a raging inferno. Steven stared back just as defiantly, obviously unappreciative of her yelling at him. He stood there for a long moment as his eyes went from blazing to suddenly doubtful, and he steadily shrank back, uncurled his fingers, and dropped his gaze._

"_I'll bring a pizza to your place tonight," he muttered before walking off._

_A distant school bell rang over the buildings. She watched him go for only a moment before hurrying towards the source of the sound. Her heart ached._

She remembered her name was Elaine.

It was dark in the half-built house where she lay strewn on the floorboards. Deryn had brought her a dark cloth to cover her tail when she'd asked. The light couldn't penetrate through the navy-blue fabric. The world was a dark, dark gray around her. She lay prostrate on her side, tired. Breathing. Thinking.

She'd walked the whole way home from Desolate Canyon and collapsed the second they got back. She was the only one to make it back on her own feet, besides Virizion. Macsen had eventually grown faint from exhaustion. Brin had forced them to accept Virizion's help and curled around them on her back the rest of the way. Her memories were a blur after she'd collapsed. Catrin had helped her into the half-finished house the timburr had been working on in the hours they'd been gone, and he'd heeded her order when she barked at him to leave her alone. Quagsire had come at some point to check her for wounds. She only remembered him bandaging the slice on her neck. He'd spoken to her as he worked, but she didn't remember what he said. After that, she occasionally heard the _tp tp tp _of paw steps on the floorboards but never turned to see who it was. Otherwise, she'd been alone.

She thought about home.

She walked back through her life so far, unearthing memories that hadn't stirred in years. So much that had been forgotten now held all the importance in the world. She remembered Claire's fifth grade spelling bee, the entire saga of Marcy's Club Delibird girlfriend drama, every single nickname Kai had ever pitched to her, and the day Jake had been born. She remembered how it felt to run her fingers through Claire's iron-straight hair, Marcy's thick, rough locks, Kai's minky-soft curls. The touch of Jake's little fingers curled around her own. She yearned for a hug from Mom or a head scratch from Dad. She wished Steven was here. No matter how many times she'd snapped at him or wrenched her hand away from his, if she asked him to hold her, he would. The need for him to be here with her now, the pain of him being a universe away, was so oppressive and suffocating that it became physical.

Elaine spent a lot of those dark hours crying. Her heart cracked and leaked her emotions all across the floor. She wished someone would hug her, stroke her hair, take her hand and guide her home.

No one came.

Eventually, cabin fever started to creep in. Her body became restless. So with the cloth still over her tail, she rose off the floor. On four feet. A puff of smoke swirled from her nose as she kicked the floor in frustration, but there was nothing she could do about her body now. She walked slowly outside.

Catrin was curled up asleep outside the makeshift doorway. In the dark, she almost mistook his maroon cloak for a big rock. It was blackened and full of holes where the electroweb had zapped him, and under it, she could make out boiled, blistered skin creeping out from underneath white bandages. He'd taken that hit for her, hadn't he?

She stepped over him and padded onwards.

Heading away from the half-built house, she rounded a few boulders and came to a surprising sight. Brin and Macsen were sitting up ahead, curled together at the base of a large rock. Brin's right wing was wrapped in a splint, and Macsen was covered in bandages. But they were both alive. Both okay.

Macsen spotted her first. They appeared to have been lost in thought, lazily stroking Brin's head as their boyfriend rested in their lap. Their eyes snapped to attention when she came around the corner. "O-oh…"

Brin looked up then, and his amber eyes flooded with relief. "Elaine!" He jumped off Macsen and slithered to her, flapping his good wing to move faster. "Thank the Sun, you're okay! Oshawott told us not to bother you. I-I was really worried."

"Relax. I'm not dead," Elaine said, only half-joking. The little smile she managed took near all her energy. "What're you guys still doing here? Shouldn't you be resting at home?"

"That's what I said," Macsen shrugged. They got up with a grunt and padded over to join them on all fours. "But Brin wanted to wait for you and Oshawott. Said it was important." They scratched at their ear with their back foot and gave her a concerned look. "You doing okay? After, um… all that?"

Elaine mulled it over for a second and then shrugged. "I guess so. I'm pretty tired." She glanced around. "Um, where's everyone else?"

"Quagsire headed off a while ago. The timburr went to go get rations in town. And the bitch won't be coming back, if she knows what's good for her," Macsen muttered and crossed their arms.

Brin shot them a scowl and then turned to Elaine. "Virizion went to go make sure the pawniards aren't, um, following us… She said she'd come back after."

"I don't know why. I thought Miss Stuck-up '_doesn't do friends_.'" Macsen said the last bit in a whiny, mocking voice.

Elaine didn't comment on that. She didn't really have it in her to. Instead, she just said the thing she wanted to say most. "Yeah. I mean, I don't know anything about that. I'm just… really glad you guys are okay." Her pitch turned upwards as she finished her words, and tears flooded her eyes.

"Aw man," Macsen said, rubbing the back of their head sheepishly. Brin, however, had no shame and closed the distance between them to nuzzle Elaine under the chin.

"I-I-I'm glad you're okay, too! After you came to save me from Stompstump Peak and everything, if you'd gotten hurt because of me, I'd never forgive myself!" Brin sniffled.

A warm feeling washed over her, and her nurturing instincts started to come back online. She nuzzled him and wrapped an arm around his back to pull him close. "It's alright. We're all okay. We all got back safe." She glanced at Macsen, who was awkwardly shuffling to the side, and extended her other arm to them. "Come on. You too."

They only hesitated for a bit longer before they shuffled on in and wrapped their arms around them both. They stayed that way for a long, peaceful moment. The warmth of their touch washed away all the bad feelings that sleeping alone on a cold floor couldn't. She closed her eyes and imagined for a moment that it was her family hugging her.

"Ah, good. You're awake."

Virizion padded into the clearing from the trail that led towards the house. Brin's face brightened in a smile, and Macsen scowled as a growl rose up from their throat. But they didn't get a chance to start shouting before Catrin bounded in, underneath Virizion's legs and right up to Elaine.

"Savior! You weren't in the house when I woke. I was worried!" He cupped her face right away, and when she yanked away from him, he looked like he'd been struck. Elaine's gut twisted at that. Damn psychological warfare.

"Neither the brothers nor their henchmen are within the borders of Post Town. I checked the road towards Desolate Canyon as well. We can consider ourselves safe," said Virizion.

"Yeah, all thanks to you, I'm sure," Macsen spat. Brin shot him a scowl.

Catrin gave a sigh. "Well, thank you for your assistance, Virizion. Now that Dunsparce is safe, I'm sure we can all forget about this and get back to our lives. Savior, did you see where the timburr went? I need to discuss further construction of the sanctuary with them. We're going to need more money, but if we start focusing on high-output jobs—"

"U-um, Oshawott?"

Catrin fell quiet as Brin piped up. He shot the dunsparce an irritated look but allowed him to speak anyway. "Yes, Dunsparce?"

"I-I, um, I have something to ask you." Starting to sweat, Brin slithered away from Macsen, past Elaine, and right up to face Catrin. "I-I've been waiting to ask you, um…" He paused, took a deep breath, and then spoke firmly. "I wanna join the team to help build the sanctuary."

Catrin looked stunned. Elaine's eyes widened in surprise, and Macsen barked an astounded, "What?!" Only Virizion remained neutral.

Then Catrin frowned and tilted his head to side-eye Brin. "Are you under the impression that I need your help?"

"I… um, no, I'm not." Brin was already shrinking back, coiling slightly and bringing up the tips of his folded wings. "B-but, I want to help! You both are new here, so you probably don't know this. But that job board in Post Town? No one's checked it in four whole years. Notes pop up every day, but none ever come down. Not until you took mine!" His eyes were beginning to tear up now, but his voice was surprisingly strong and commanding. "You're heroes, like a rescue team. The first heroes who've come to this town in such a long time. A-and I almost got you killed…"

Brin's voice broke for a moment, and Macsen immediately spoke up. "Dunsparce, it wasn't—"

"Emolga, let me finish!" Brin said as sternly as he could in his little voice, and Macsen begrudgingly closed their mouth. "I almost got everyone killed. I've spent too long being a liability, and I'm tired of it! I wanna give something back to the world. Your sanctuary is going to do that. A place where pokemon can come to get help? Food and medicine and shelter? It sounds amazing! I have to be a part of it!" Brin bowed his head to Catrin and Elaine. "I'll give everything to help you both, if you'll have me."

Elaine was stunned, too stunned to reply. So Catrin unfortunately beat her to it. "I'm still not certain what makes you think you'll be of use. Manning a sanctuary is not easy work. What skills do you even have?"

Brin flinched. He coiled in on himself, and Elaine thought for a terrible moment that that would be the end of it. But then…

"Mystery dungeons."

Everyone looked up as Macsen spoke up. A deep frown carved through their face, and they crossed their arms and stared off to the side. "You need money to build your sanctuary. Money comes from mystery dungeon jobs. Brin knows every dungeon from Breezy Meadow to the Crags of Lament like the back of his wings. He's the only dungeon guide you'll find in the whole north."

A huge smile spread across Brin's face. His eyes glowed with gratitude and love, and he turned to Catrin and gave a little smile. "Um, yes! That."

Catrin was dumbfounded. He sat there blinking for a moment, obviously not having been prepared for the possibility of Brin actually having something to provide. Elaine watched him think for a long moment before his face sank into a defeated frown. "I suppose that would be of use..." After staring at his paw for a moment like he couldn't believe he was doing this, he extended it to Brin. "So long as you aren't expecting wages, welcome to the team, Dunsparce."

Brin's wings fluttered as he smiled wide. He butted Catrin's paw with his nose like he'd been expecting a pat, which Catrin recoiled from with a hiss. "Thank you so, so, SO MUCH! I promise I won't let you down!"

"I'll hold you to that," Catrin said. "That at least helps our employment problem."

"I'll join, too," said Macsen.

All eyes turned to them, and Brin's grin grew even wider, something Elaine hadn't thought possible. "Emolga! No way!"

"Well I can't just let my boyfriend run off and do all the fun stuff by himself," they shrugged. They flashed a sassy smile, though their eyes looked not at all into this. "I can help do jobs and fight in dungeons. Just, like, not every day. I've got my own stuff to do, too."

"What do you expect in return?" Catrin asked, eyes narrowed just a bit.

"I'll take food, for me and Dunsparce. Post Town rations to folks living outside of town are not exactly generous," Macsen said. "And I want a ten-percent cut of all the reward money from jobs I help with."

"One percent," Catrin growled.

"Fifteen or I walk."

He bared his teeth. "Emolga…"

"Just give them three percent," Elaine snapped. Dragon, she was not in the mood for these two to get started.

Catrin gave a tried look but sighed. "Very well. A share of rations and a three-percent cut of reward money for any jobs you assist with. Welcome to the team," he muttered, extending a paw.

"Well, don't act too grateful. You're embarrassing me," Macsen responded in a sassy tone as they shook Catrin's paw.

"Very well!" Catrin pulled away from them and padded a few feet off. "That is… actually somewhat of a help. We can earn more money if we have more manpower to perform jobs, and having knowledge on the local dungeons will make explorations safer and more efficient." His ears turned upwards, and he made a satisfied expression almost halfway to a smile. "Perhaps running this sanctuary will go more smoothly than I thought."

"We're gonna build the best sanctuary ever!" Brin cheered, flapping his good wing and swirling his tail.

"_Ahem._"

The four of them turned to Virizion. In all the excitement, Elaine had forgotten the legendary was still there. She was surprisingly adept at melting into the background despite her commanding presence. "Oh great, you're still here," Macsen muttered, indicating that the feeling was apparently mutual.

Catrin shot Virizion a wary look, his shoulders stiffening. "Yes, Virizion? What is it?"

Virizion took a step forward and said with a tiny smile, "I would like to join your sanctuary as well."

"_What?!_" Catrin and Macsen shrieked in unison. Elaine blinked in surprise, her ears perking up slightly, and the biggest of smiles spread across Brin's face.

"Of COURSE you ca—" Brin started, before Macsen slapped a paw over his mouth.

"No way! Absolutely freaking not! You think you can just walk in here and ask for a place on this team after you almost got us all killed?! As if anyone wants to work with you? Take a hike!" they raged, cheeks sparking and fur puffing out.

Brin nipped Macsen's paw, making their partner squeak, and pushed past them. His eyes were bright as stars, and he twirled his drill tail in elation. "I wanna work with her! I'd love to work with her! Think of everything we could learn from the powerful Virizion!"

"The only thing we could learn from a mon like that is how to be a right awful bitch!" Macsen raged. "Oshawott, tell me you think this is a bad idea. Tell me you're not gonna let this happen."

Catrin was quiet. His body was stiff, his tail swished in agitation, and he laid his ears back as he shot Virizion a wary, suspicious look. "Why do you want employment here?"

"I'm a powerful battler, as I'm sure you've seen by now. Your sanctuary will get raided within a week if you don't have strong pokemon to protect it. I can solve that problem for you."

"That's not what I asked." Catrin's eyes narrowed in a dark look. "Why do you want to join?"

Virizion fell quiet for a moment. She was so composed, so consistently neutral in expression that it was hard to glean anything from her. But there was a flicker of something in those small, brown eyes. Her gaze flicked to Brin, and she quickly looked away from him before shooting Catrin a hard look. And then she shrugged and said, "It seems fun."

Macsen's cheeks sparked as they growled. "Don't you have other things to do, like prancing around the countryside toting your whole 'worthier than thou' thing?!"

"It can wait," Virizion shrugged. "Besides, it's not your decision to make, Emolga. Oshawott surely understands the importance of protecting his borders and that he holds dear." She fixed Catrin in her paralyzing gaze once more. "Unless you have some reason to refuse?"

It took Catrin a long moment to respond. He was silent, grinding his teeth and messing with his cloak as his eye twitched. But Elaine didn't understand. Why? Virizion was obviously a powerful ally, and she was offering her services up for nothing. She couldn't imagine he was hesitating for Macsen's sake. So why…?

And then he exhaled, curled his fluffy tail around his body, and glared at the ground. "I will accept your services."

"No!"

"YES!" Brin flew forward and hoisted himself as high as he could to meet Virizion's eye. "I'm so, so glad you're joining! It'll be awesome to have you in Post Town all the time now! All the heroes are banding together like a rescue team, to save the world!" He turned his hopeful gaze to Elaine. "That's what we're gonna do. Cause you're human, right?"

Elaine took a quick step back. "H-how did—" she started, before she remembered Desolate Canyon.

"I'm sorry if we found out quicker than you wanted," Brin said as he slithered over to her. "I never really thought the prophecy was real, but I remember the stories my gran told me. Humans, the greatest heroes of all— even greater than rescue teams!— who turn into pokemon and come to save the world. It's so amazing to meet you."

Elaine stared into Brin's wide, glittering eyes, and then she glanced at everyone else. Macsen stared at her in stunned disbelief, Virizion looked at her with a hint of warmth in her brown eyes, and Catrin… There were so many emotions in those blue eyes. They carried the weight of the world in them. Elaine flinched away from Brin and said nothing.

Brin coiled. "I-I'm sorry. I don't mean to put you on the spot," he said sheepishly as he continued to put her on the spot. "I just wanted to say that, you saved my life, and you're here to do so much more. So if there's any way that I— all of us— can support you, then we will. We're behind you, Elaine. Cause you're gonna save the world… right?"

For a long, long time, Elaine was quiet. Was she going to save the world?

In that moment, she didn't want to. Bitterness chewed at her heart like a black mold. The mightyena, Swanna, Gurdurr, the Pawniard Brothers, Virizion, hell, even the timburr. There were plenty of times Elaine thought her own world was bitter and cruel, but these people, this world, was a whole 'nother level. And maybe that was just her privilege talking— it was better to live in Unova than somewhere like Alola or Orre— but even the worst evils in her own world would have hordes of brave, strong, angry people fighting against them at every turn. But this world was just begging to die. This world was begging for Elaine to turn her back on it, and after being stolen and transformed and almost murdered, she sure as fuck had a right mind to.

But even as a part of her wanted to tell Brin _I sure as hell am not, go bring your own sun back if you want it so bad_… she didn't.

Why didn't she?

As the inferno in her head finally began to fizzle out, Elaine looked at all of them. Virizion, Macsen, Brin, Catrin. A woman who'd saved the lives of strangers simply because it was the right thing to do. A kid who lived to keep the light of their life shining bright. A boy who sought heroism in a world where it had long since gone extinct. And a person who was nasty, temperamental, self-centered, and hateful but protected her anyway. A person who wanted to see the world restored because— she hoped— it was the right thing to do. A person seeking to make things right. A person who'd reached out and asked to be saved.

And she'd promised, hadn't she? She'd promised to save the world.

But she didn't know how. She wanted to protect people but had failed at every turn. She was here to restore the sun but had no idea how to do it. All she had in her belt were vague, foggy memories of a cry for help and a temperamental oshawott. No powers, no battle strength, not even opposable thumbs. But here they were: Brin, Macsen, Virizion, and Catrin, ready to stand by her despite all that. They were ready to help save the world. This world had long since forgotten how to fight for itself, but maybe, just maybe, it could remember.

And if Elaine had to be the Savior to kindle that flame and get this job done, she would. Because that's how she'd be getting home. That's how she'd keep her promise. That's how she'd give these pokemon back the chance to live safe, happy lives. She had no idea what she was doing, but if there was one thing Elaine knew, it was how to fake it till you make it.

Bring back the sun. Save the world. Get home.

So, Elaine lifted her chin, shook the cloth off of her tail to let her light shine, and said, "Yeah, Brin. I sure as hell am."

"YAAAY!" Brin nuzzled her so hard it was practically a headbutt. Tears waterfalled from his eyes as he started to hiccup, smiling so bright it eclipsed her own light. "Th-thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU!"

Behind him, Macsen padded forward and scratched their ear sheepishly. "Th-this whole 'human savior' thing isn't easy to wrap the head around, b-but if there's anything I can do to help bring back the sun, I will." They blinked and twitched their nose. "Wow. 'Bring back the sun.' Not a sentence I ever thought I'd say unironically."

"It's very pleasant to meet a human for the first time. If there is anything I can do to assist, please let me know!" Virizion said with a pleasant smile.

"Thanks!" Elaine said, smiling at them both. Underneath the blackness, a little light flickered in her heart.

They fell quiet as Catrin suddenly padded forward. Brin backed away from Elaine as he came, and the two stood face to face. Hero and partner. Human and guide. Catrin's ears flopped down as tears pricked at his eyes, and he sniffled. "Savior… I'm sorry that this world has brought you to question your mission. It's m-my job to keep you safe, and what almost happened…" He paused for a moment, covered his mouth with his paw, and took a deep breath. "But for you to remain steadfast in your mission despite what happened… You are truly great. Too great for this world. I promise won't fail again." With a stray glance at Virizion, he wrapped his arms around her neck and hugged her. His tears were hot on her skin. "Th-thank you for doing this! Thank you!"

Elaine's body tensed at Catrin's touch. His voice echoed in his head. _Please don't kill her, not until she saves the world! Do whatever you want with her after, I don't care, but please let her save the world! _It looped in her head, again and again until it was all she could hear. But she wrapped an arm around him and hugged him back anyway. "No problem, Oshawott. No problem."

"A-are we interrupting something?"

Elaine and everyone looked up to see Deryn and Aeddan peering at them from the edge of the clearing. She had no idea how long they'd been standing there, but considering the wildly confused looks on their faces, probably not long.

"Ah, you two! Took you long enough," Catrin said as he pulled away from Elaine and padded over to them. "Now that the Savior is well again, I ask you get back to work on finishing the house. I'd rather she not have to sleep exposed to the wind! And you have some new coworkers. Dunsparce, Emolga, and Virizion will be working with us henceforward."

Deryn and Aeddan just blinked. "Cool," said Deryn.

"Hi! Nice to meet you!" Brin said as he slithered over to them, Macsen and Virizion in tow. "What do you guys know how to build? I've got a lot of cool ideas for the sanctuary! I was thinking we could have a building to store local books that people don't want anymore, and…"

Brin continued to ramble, with Macsen cheerfully encouraging his ideas, Catrin looking unimpressed, and Deryn and Aeddan starting to perk up from the infectious excitement. Elaine let their voices fade from her ears and turned her snout to the purplish-black sky. Faded, sick, and lifeless. Impossibly far away. She could climb the tallest hill in Post Town and still never reach it. No matter how far she jumped, no matter how much she struggled, no matter how high she climbed.

But she may as well try.

PART ONE: SOLAR ECLIPSE

END

* * *

**Author's Note**

And that's a wrap for Part One of Solstice! I'll probably stop uploading here, as it doesn't seem like anyone is reading. See y'all around!


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